THE  SULPICIANS 

in 

THE  UNITED  STATES 


HERBERMANN 


\ 


THE   SULPICIANS 

IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES 


BY 

CHARLES  G.  HERBERMANN,  LL.D. 

EMEBITCS    PBOFE880B    OT    LATIN    IN    THE    COLLEGE    OF    THE    CITT     OF    NEW     TORK; 

EDITOB-IN-CHIEF  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  ENCYCLOPEDIA;   PRESIDENT  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES  CATHOLIC  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


NEW  YORK 

THE  ENCYCLOPEDIA  PRESS 
23  EAST  FORTY-FIRST  STREET 


Nihil  Obstat 

REMIGIUS  LAFOBT,  D.D. 


Imprimatur 

^JOHN  CABDINAL  FARLEY 

Archbishop  of  New  York 
New  York,  October  7, 1916 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  PRESS,  INC..  1916 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  CALL 1-23 

n.    THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  ST.  SULPICE  IN  THE  UNITED 

STATES 24-52 

HI.    ST.  MARY'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810 53-75 

IV.    ADMINISTRATION  OP  M.  JOHN  MARY  TESSIER, 

1810-1829 76-90 

V.    ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830 91-123 

VI.    OTHER  SUBSIDIARIES  OP  ST.  MARY'S  SEMINARY  .  124-139 
VIE.    THE  SULPICIAN  MISSIONARY  BISHOPS  AND  MIS- 
SIONARIES      140-193 

VIII.    ST.  MARY'S  SEMINARY.     THE  ADMINISTRATION 

OP  M.  DELTJOL 194-214 

IX.    THE  PROTEGEES  OP  THE  SULPICIANS 215-236 

X.    ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  1829-1852 237-244 

XI.    THE  COLLEGE  OP  ST.  CHARLES,  BALTIMORE    .    .  245-264 

XII.    SULPICIAN  MISSIONARY  BISHOPS 265-291 

XIII.  THE  ADMINISTRATIONS  OP  MM.  LHOMME  AND 

DUBREUL 292-311 

XIV.  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OP  M.  MAGNIEN  ....  312-337 

APPENDIX 339-343 

INDEX  345-360 


111 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


Most  Rev.  John  Carroll,  First  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  .     .  4 
Very  Rev.  James  Andrew  Emery,  Ninth  Superior  General 

of  St.  Sulpice 10 

Jean  Jacques  Olier,  Founder  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  .  28 

The  Old  House  Which  Became  St.  Mary's  Seminary  ...  36 

Rev.  Demetrius  A.  Gallitzin 44 

M.  Francis  Charles  Nagot 54 

M.  Jean  Marie  Tessier 76 

M.  Antoine   Gamier 88 

John  Dubois,  Bishop  of  New  York 126 

Rt.  Rev.  Benedict  Joseph  Flaget,  First  Bishop  of  Bards- 
town     142 

Rt.  Rev.  John  Baptist  David 162 

Rev.  Gabriel  Richard,  Pastor  of  St.  Anne's  Church,  Detroit, 

1799-1832 166 

Most  Rev.  William  Dubourg,  Founder  and  First  President 

of  St.  Mary's  College 172 

Most  Rev.  Ambrose  Marechal,  Third  Archbishop  of  Balti- 
more       1°" 

Very  Rev.  Louis  Regis  Deluol,  Third  Superior  of  St.  Mary's 

Seminary 

Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton ....  206 

First  Building  of  St.  Charles'  College 220 

Sanctuary  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  Chapel 230 

Rev.  Oliver  L.  Jenkins 246 

St.  Charles'  College,  Ellicott  City,  1859-1878    ...         .256 

Chapel  of  Our  Lady  of  the  Angels,  Old  St.  Charles'  ...  264 

v 


VI  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Rt.  Rev.  Simon  Gabriel  Brute,  First  Bishop  of  Vincennes  .  268 

Old  St.  Charles'  College 280 

Rt.  Rev.  John  J.  Chanche,  First  Bishop  of  Natchez  .  .  .  284 

Rt.  Rev.  Augustine  Verot,  First  Bishop  of  St.  Augustine  .  290 
Very  Rev.  Francis  Lhomme,  Fourth  Superior  of  St.  Mary's 

Seminary 294 

Very  Rev.  Joseph  Paul  Dubreul 306 

James  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  .  .  .  310 

Chapel  of  Our  Lady  of  the  Angels,  Catonsville 318 

Very  Rev.  A.  L.  Magnien,  Sixth  Superior  of  St.  Mary's 

Seminary 332 


PKEFACE 

I  am  glad  to  connect  my  name  with  the  work  to  which 
Mr.  Herbermann  devoted  the  last  months  of  his  nohle  life, 
and  in  which  he  displays  his  generous  Catholic  feelings. 
It  is  regrettable  that  he  had  not,  hefore  his  health  began 
to  fail,  taken  up  the  study  of  Sulpician  influence  in  this 
country.  It  merits  recognition. 

The  Sulpicians,  though  not  numerous  in  our  land,  have 
done  a  work,  both  in  the  ministry  and  in  their  seminaries, 
altogether  out  of  proportion  to  their  numbers.  On  the 
mission-field  they  have  everywhere  left  in  the  districts  in 
which  they  worked  as  priests  or  bishops,  a  reputation  for 
personal  holiness,  great  labors  and  public  spirit.  Their 
missionary  record  is  especially  noteworthy  for  men  trained 
to  the  cloistered  life  of  the  seminary  and  laboring  in  a 
strange  land.  Again  it  would  be  difficult  to  overrate  the 
extent  of  their  help  in  securing  for  our  needy  missions  in 
times  past  a  large  supply  both  of  French  priests  and  of 
French  money.  This  service  is,  as  has  been  remarked,  not 
unlike  that  which  the  French  nation  rendered  ours  at  the 
period  of  the  Revolution.  Within  their  own  vocation,  to 
which,  as  Mr.  Herbermann  shows,  they  clung  with  great 
tenacity,  they  have  exercised  an  influence  of  the  first  im- 
portance. 

No  cause  can  have  finer  leaders  than  a  brotherhood  who 
lavish  upon  it  their  toil,  their  resources,  and  their  lives, 
and  who  hearten  their  followers  by  the  persuasive  sum- 
mons, "follow  us."  Now,  the  sacred  cause  of  clerical 
training  has  won  this  devotion  of  the  Sulpicians.  They 
have  the  Gospel  ideals  for  the  formation  of  priests,  they 
make  this  training  their  one  passion  and  pursuit;  they 

vii 


Vlll  PREFACE 


have  the  wise  traditions  of  old  St.  Sulpice  which  secure 
unity  of  effort,  corporate  management  of  the  seminary  by 
all  the  fathers  in  council,  and  close  personal  care  of  the 
students  by  spiritual  direction  given  by  all  the  fathers, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  open,  steadfast  example  of 
priestliness,  which  the  students  may  see  with  their  eyes 
and  handle  with  their  hands. 

I  feel,  then,  that  I  am  voicing  the  sentiments  of  the 
thousands  of  priests  in  this  country  who  have  been  trained 
by  the  Sulpicians,  when  I  affirm  that  the  coming  of  Father 
Nagot  and  his  companions  to  found  the  first  seminary  in 
the  United  States  was  a  signal  blessing  of  God  to  our 
Church. 

And  now,  with  a  knowledge  of  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  of  our  history  since  the  foundation  of 
St.  Mary's  at  Baltimore,  and  the  experience,  besides,  of 
a  long  life  in  the  holy  priesthood,  I  repeat  the  judgment 
of  Bishop  Carroll  who  brought  the  Sulpicians  to  the 
States.  Writing  to  Father  Emery,  the  Superior  General 
of  the  Sulpicians,  in  1801,  he  says  : 

"I  declare  to  you,  as  I  have  declared  it  in  every  cir- 
cumstance, that  I  have  nowhere  else  known  men  more  able 
than  your  priests,  by  character,  talents  and  virtues,  to 
form  such  clergymen  as  the  state  of  religion  demands  now. 
Accordingly,  I  believe  that  it  would  be  one  of  the  great- 
est misfortunes  that  could  befall  this  Diocese  ever  to  lose 
the  gentlemen  of  the  Seminary." 


Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 
October  13th,  1916. 
Feast  of  St.  Edward. 


INTKODUCTOKY 

The  present  history  of  the  Sulpicians  in  the  United 
States  appeared  at  first  in  the  "Historical  Kecords  and 
Studies,"  published  by  the  United  States  Catholic  His- 
torical Society  of  New  York  City.     Some  years  ago  the 
author  had  his  attention  drawn  to  the  fact  that  among 
the  many  wants  to  be  found  in  the  historical  literature 
of  our  country,  a  record  of  the  work  of  the  Sulpician 
Fathers  in  the  United  States  was  one  of  the  most  cry- 
ing, and  at  the  request  of  some  of  the  Sulpician  Fathers 
and  with  their  aid,  he  undertook  the  study  of  the  work 
accomplished  in  this  country  by  the  Company  of  St.  Sul- 
pice.     As  he  progressed  in  his  labor,  he  found  that  his 
task  was  even  more  attractive  than  he  had  conceived  it  to 
be.     The  noble  aims  of  the  Sulpicians,  the  admirable 
character  of  the  men,  the  attractive  nature  of  their  meth- 
ods, their  sympathy  with  our  country's  institutions,  their 
services  in  its  necessities  and  their  universal  loyalty  to 
the  cause  of  Catholicity,  did  not  fail  to  attract  the  writer's 
sympathy  and  admiration.     The  zeal  with  which  they 
gave  themselves  to  the  cause  of  clerical  education,  the 
fidelity  with  which  they  insisted  upon  their  principles, 
were  worthy  of  all  praise,  especially  when  we  bear  in 
mind  the  obstacles  which  they  encountered  and  the  will- 
ingness with  which  they  aided  the  first  bishops  in  the 
missionary  and  secular  educational  fields,  when  this  was 
a  need,  demand  the  enthusiastic  approval  of  the  Catholic 
and  the  scholar.     The  writer,  therefore,  soon  found  his 
task  a  labor  of  love,  the  more  so,  as  the  Sulpician  Fathers, 
in  accordance  with   their  promise,  threw   open  to  him 
their  archives  to  help  him  fill  in  gaps  in  the  published 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 


literature  on  the  subject.  He  can  testify  that  their  help 
was  characterized  by  sympathy  and  honesty,  no  less  than 
by  zeal  and  courtesy.  To  his  friend,  the  Kev.  A.  Boyer, 
he  owes  the  most  cordial  thanks  for  his  constant  and  most 
valuable  services.  To  Father  Anthony  Vieban,  also,  and 
Father  Francis  P.  Havey,  he  wishes  to  acknowledge  his 
obligations,  as  well  as  to  the  Very  Eev.  Edward  Dyer, 
the  Superior  General  of  the  Sulpicians  in  the  United 

States. 

CHABL.ES  G.  HEBBEBMANN 


BIBLIOQEAPHY.    Anndles  de  la  Propagation  de  la  Foi; 
Bulletin  Trimestriel  des  anciens  Eleves  de  St.  Sulpice; 
Golden  Jubilee  Volume  of  St.  Charles'  College  (Balti- 
more, 1898)  ;  Gosselin,  Vie  de  M.  Emery  (Paris,  1862)  ; 
Hassard,  John  K.  G.,  Life  of  Archbishop  Hughes  (New 
York,   1866)  ;   Hewlett,  William  J.,  St.  Thomas'  Sem- 
inary  (St.  Louis,  1906)  ;  Icard,  J.  H.  Pretres  de  St. 
Sulpice  (Paris,  1886) ;  L'Universite  Catholique;  Lemcke, 
Life  of  Gallitzin   (Minister,   1861) ;  Memorial  Volume 
of  the  Centenary  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary   (Baltimore, 
1891)  ;   Sadlier,  Agnes,   Elizabeth  Seton,  Foundress  of 
the  Sisters  of  Charity  (New  York,  1905)  ;  Shea,  John 
Gilmary,  History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United 
States   (New  York,   1892);   Spalding,  Life  of  Bishop 
Flaget    (Louisville,    1852);    Steiner,    History   of   Edu- 
cation in  Maryland;  The  U.  S.  Catholic  Historical  Mag- 
azine   (1887-1893);    Webb,    Benj.,    The    Centenary    of 
Catholicity    in    Kentucky    (Louisville,    1884);    White, 
Charles  L,  Life  of  Mrs.  Eliza  A.  Seton   (New  York, 
1904);    The    Catholic    Encyclopedia;    Seton,    Kobert, 
Memoirs,  Letters  and  Journal  of  Elizabeth  Seton  (New 
York,  1869). 


XI 


THE  SULPICIANS 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  I 
* 

THE  CALL 

The  twenty-seventh  of  February,  1785,  is  the  birthday 
of  the  organized  Catholic  Church  of  the  United  States. 
On  that  day  the  Keverend  John  Carroll  signified  to 
Cardinal  Antonelli,  then  Prefect  of  the  Propaganda,  his 
acceptance  of  the  office  of  superior  of  the  mission  of  the 
thirteen  United  States,  to  which  Pope  Pius  VI  had  ap- 
pointed him.  The  new  head  of  the  budding  American 
Church  was  fully  conscious  of  the  many  difficulties  he 
would  have  to  surmount  in  performing  the  work  which 
had  been  confided  to  him.  Not  that  the  flock  entrusted 
to  the  new  shepherd  was  counted  by  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, not  that  the  clergy  which  he  was  to  guide  was 
unmanageable  because  of  its  numbers,  for,  as  he  tells  us 
in  his  letter  of  acceptance,  the  Catholic  laity  of  Mary- 
land consisted  of  some  15,000,  and  that  of  Pennsylvania 
of  7,000  souls;  of  these  several  thousand  may  have  been 
imaginary.  New  York,  he  tells  us,  was  estimated  to  hold 
some  1500  Catholics.  In  the  remaining  States  the  faith- 
ful were  not  worth  mentioning,  and  the  northwestern  ter- 
ritory, i.e.  the  Illinois  country  and  Michigan,  was  the 
home  of  a  few  thousand  half-settled  Canadians,  under 
the  charge  of  two  or  three  Canadian  missionaries.  All 
told,  the  flock  of  the  new  shepherd  probably  did  not 
exceed  25,000,  hardly  more  than  enough  to  fill  three  large 
New  York  parishes  at  the  present  time.  To  guide  and 

1 


2  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

rule  this  flock,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Carroll  tells  us,  he  could 
look  to  the  assistance  of  some  twenty-five  priests — nine- 
teen in  Maryland,  five  in  Pennsylvania,  and  two  or  three 
without  definite  station.  Of  these,  two  had  passed  three- 
score and  ten,  and  several  others  were  close  to  this  goal. 

The  clergy  of  the  United  States,  therefore,  hardly  ex- 
ceeded twenty-five;  now  if  clergy  and  laity  had  been 
evenly  distributed  over  a  moderate  area  the  clergy  could 
have  easily  satisfied  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  faithful, 
but  this  was  not  the  case.  Twenty-five  priests  scattered 
over  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  were  wholly  unable  to 
attend  to  their  spiritual  wants,  even  if  we  leave  the 
Church  members  scattered  over  the  eleven  other  States 
entirely  out  of  consideration.  Moreover,  as  we  learn  from 
the  new  superior's  letter  of  acceptance,  a  steady  though 
slow  Catholic  immigration  had  already  set  in,  and  these 
new  Catholics,  especially  in  the  large  cities,  were  of 
very  doubtful  quality  and  required  exceptional  pastoral 
care.  These  facts  had  deeply  impressed  the  Rev.  Mr.  Car- 
roll, and  even  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  he  speaks  of  the 
need  of  high  schools  and  a  seminary  as  among  the  most 
pressing  necessities  of  the  new  American  Church. 

Little  assistance  could  he  expect  from  the  Catholic 
countries  of  the  Old  World.  Ireland  and  England  still 
drew  the  priests  of  whom  they  were  in  want  from  the 
missionary  colleges  of  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  the 
Low  Countries.  The  native  clergy  of  Europe  hardly  suf- 
ficed for  the  needs  of  the  several  European  nations  and 
their  colonies.  And  the  prospects  of  the  future  were 
not  more  promising  than  the  present  conditions  were  sat- 
isfactory. The  Society  of  Jesus  had  been  suppressed, 
and  thus  a  source  of  supply  which,  for  more  than  two 
centuries,  had  furnished  many  missionaries,  had  been  cut 
off.  Yet  if  the  newly  organized  American  Church  had 
relied  upon  self-help,  she  must  have  been  condemned  to 


THE    CAIX  3 

make  bricks  without  straw.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Carroll 
realized  these  difficulties  of  the  situation  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  he  was  not  the  man  to  remain  idle  when  the 
necessities  of  his  flock  loudly  cried  for  action.  It  is  true, 
as  we  learn  from  one  of  the  superior's  letters  to  the  apos- 
tolic nuncio  at  Paris,  that  he  had  received  offers  of  serv- 
ice from  German  and  Portuguese  priests  already  in  the 
country,  but  such  help  as  this  must  needs  have  been  spo- 
radic. In  1786  and  1787  we  find  him  expressing  to  his 
European  friends  and  to  the  officials  of  the  Propaganda  the 
conviction  that  the  only  hope  for  the  steady  supply  of 
priests  and  for  the  growth  of  the  Church  depended  on  the, 
establishment  of  a  school  for  higher  studies  and  of  a  semi- 
nary in  the  United  States ;  nay,  more,  at  the  same  time  he 
used  his  utmost  efforts  to  induce  the  Society  of  the  Mary- 
land and  Pennsylvania  missionaries  to  take  practical  steps 
toward  the  foundation  of  an  academy  at  Georgetown.  In 
spite  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  clergy, 
he  persisted  in  his  project,  and  in  1789  the  first  Catholic 
college — a  very  modest  institution — was  opened  at  George- 
town in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Pius  VI  and  the  heads  of  the  Propaganda  saw  the  wis- 
dom of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Carroll's  plans,  and  when  the  Pope, 
in  his  bull  dated  November  6,  1789,  appointed  him  bishop 
of  the  newly  created  see  of  Baltimore,  the  bull  not  only 
approved  of  the  design  to  found  a  seminary  in  the  new 
diocese,  but  made  it  the  bishop's  duty  to  establish  such 
an  institution.  This  injunction,  which  was  in  such 
marked  agreement  with  Bishop  Carroll's  own  views,  no 
doubt  inspired  him  with  new  energy  to  bring  about  the 
establishment  of  a  clerical  seminary,  and  he  corresponded 
with  various  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  Europe  with  a 
view  to  realizing  the  desires  of  the  Holy  Father  and  of  the 
Congregation  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith.  Among 


4:  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  prelates  whose  aid  he  invoked  was  the  apostolic  nuncio 
at  Paris,  Mgr.  Dugnani. 

We  need  hardly  remind  our  readers  that  Bishop  Car- 
roll's nomination  to  the  see  of  Baltimore  was  only  a  few 
months  subsequent  to  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Kevo- 
lution.  The  taking  of  the  Bastille  on  July  14,  1789, 
and  the  violent  proceedings  of  the  French  States-General 
produced  a  profound  impression  upon  the  entire  Chris- 
tian world ;  above  all,  on  the  civil  and  religious  authorities 
in  France.  The  wisest  and  best  men  everywhere  anx- 
iously foreboded  the  coming  troubles,  which  threatened 
throne  and  Church  alike. 

Among  the  most  able  and  far-seeing  of  the  French 
clergy  was  the  Very  Eev.  James  Andrew  Emery,  the 
ninth  general  superior  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 
This  distinguished  ecclesiastic,  prior  to  his  appointment  as 
head  of  the  Sulpician  Society,  had  held  important  posi- 
tions in  that  body,  and  as  vicar-general  of  Angers  had 
acquired  much  practical  experience  and  great  insight 
into  political  and  ecclesiastical  conditions  in  France.  He 
had  followed  with  a  keen  and  attentive  eye  the  disquiet- 
ing course  of  events  and  foresaw  at  an  early  date  the  dan- 
gers which  threatened  the  French  Church.  His  own  So- 
ciety, he  foresaw,  might  ere  long  be  drawn  into  the  revo- 
lutionary whirlpool  and  destroyed,  and  he  began  to  cast 
about  for  a  haven  of  refuge  should  disaster  overtake  it. 
The  Abbe  Emery  had  his  attention  drawn  to  America, 
partly,  no  doubt,  because  his  Society  already  possessed  a 
flourishing  establishment  in  Canada,  partly  because  the 
French  had  been  the  allies  of  the  Americans  in  the  War 
of  Independence,  and  partly  because  in  1790  some  French 
noblemen  were  organizing  a  French  colony  in  the  valley 
of  the  Ohio. 

Next  to  Bishop  Carroll,  it  is  the  Abbe  Emery  to  whom 
the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  owe  the  manifold  bene- 


MOST  REV.  JOHN  CARROLL, 
First  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 


THE    CALL  i> 

fits  which  have  accrued  to  them  from  the  labors  of  the 
Sulpician  Fathers,  and  it  is  therefore  proper  to  give  a 
short  account  of  the  life  of  this  remarkable  man. 

Born  at  Gex,  near  the  Swiss  frontier,  in  August,  1732, 
he  was  entrusted  to  the  Jesuits  after  the  usual  prelimi- 
nary education,  and  then  took  up  his  philosophical  stud- 
ies at  Lyons,  and  by  competitive  examination  won  a  place 
;mong  the  so-called  Robertins  in  Paris.  In  both  places 
AQ  won  distinction  by  his  scholarship.  Ordained  to  the 
priesthood  in  1756,  he  not  only  successfully  filled  various 
places  in  the  Sulpician  seminaries,  but  when,  in  1776, 
he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Seminary  of  Angers,  the 
bishop,  M.  de  Grasse,  soon  named  him  chief  vicar-general 
of  the  diocese.  The  duties  of  this  position  made  him 
acquainted  with  active  practical  life,  with  the  require- 
ments of  business  and  the  character  of  men.  The  wisdom 
and  success  with  which  he  governed  the  diocese  drew  the 
attention  of  his  brethren  more  and  more  to  his  many 
merits,  and  when,  in  1782,  the  eighth  superior-general  of 
St.  Sulpice,  M.  Le  Gallic,  resigned  his  position,  M.  Emery- 
was  elected  his  successor  and  took  up  his  residence  in 
Paris.  Here  his  wise  and  sympathetic  qualities  gained 
him  the  good-will  of  all  within  and  without  his  own  So- 
ciety. When,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  Mgr.  de  Juigne,  left  France,  he  ap- 
pointed M.  Emery  one  of  his  vicars-general  who  were  to 
govern  the  great  Archdiocese  of  Paris  during  the  days  of 
the  Terror  and  the  critical  times  that  followed,  until  the 
Concordat  revived  the  French  hierarchy  in  1802.  Dur- 
ing all  this  time,  beginning  with  the  taking  of  the  Bas- 
tille (1789),  he  remained  at  his  post,  residing  in  his  sem- 
inary, when  most  of  the  churches  of  Paris  and  its  eccle- 
siastical institutions  were  closed.  With  firmness  he  con- 
demned the  constitutional  oath  of  the  clergy  and  with 
discretion  he  helped  to  guide  the  much-tried  priests  of 


6  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Paris  amid  the  many  successive  problems  which  tortured 
their  consciences. 

M.  Emery  was  not  destined  to  go  through  these  dreadful 
times  without  personally  experiencing  the  terrors  of  the 
Revolution.  On  Pentecost  Day,  May  19,  1793,  he  was 
arrested  at  his  home,  taken  to  the  Maine,  and  thence  to 
St.-Pelagie,  one  of  the  convents  of  Paris  then  used  for  a 
prison.  However,  his  imprisonment  did  not  last  long,  for, 
owing  to  the  influence  of  a  relative,  Mme.  de  Villette,  he 
was  liberated  on  May  31,  and  took  refuge  in  that  lady's 
house.  But  on  the  16th  of  July  following,  he  was  again 
arrested  and  taken  to  the  Cannes,  whence  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Conciergerie,  where  he  remained  in  prison 
for  sixteen  months.  He  was  repeatedly  taken  before  the 
revolutionary  tribunal,  and  more  than  once  expected  to  be 
guillotined.  What  were  the  mental  tortures  through  which 
he  passed  during  this  imprisonment  may  be  seen  in  part 
from  the  following  letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Nagot,  at  that 
time  the  superior  of  the  Sulpicians  in  Baltimore : 

"In  a  few  hours  I  am  about  to  appear  before  the  revo- 
lutionary tribunal,  my  dear  Nagot,  and  I  expect  to  be 
sentenced  to  death.  I  avail  myself  of  these  last  hours  of 
my  life  to  give  you  and  all  your  confreres  my  blessing, 
and  to  assure  you  that  in  heaven,  where  I  hope  to  be  re- 
ceived through  God's  mercy,  I  shall  not  forget  you.  I 
shall  not  cease  to  beg  of  God  to  protect  you  and  to  make 
all  your  plans  prosper,  which,  He  knows,  seek  only  His 
glory.  I  have  sought  to  the  end  to  help  you,  and  I  hope 
you  will  find  assistance  after  my  death.  A  letter  of  M. 
Martel,  which  informed  me  that  he  received  a  thousand 
ecus  which  you  had  left  in  the  care  of  Mme.  Gouy  and 
that  were  confiscated,  furnished  one  of  the  grounds  for 
bringing  charges  against  me.  What  a  consolation  to  die 
the  victim  of  my  love  for  the  Church  and  of  my  affection 
for  you.  In  the  name  of  God,  I  trust  that  your  house  and 


THE    CALL  7 

the  young  men  destined  to  be  brought  up  there  will  always 
be  looked  upon  as  the  nucleus  of  the  undertaking.  The 
blessings  which  result  therefrom  are  unbounded.  Do  you, 
therefore,  and  the  professors  strive  without  ceasing  to 
prepare  yourselves  for  this  work  by  studying  local  preju- 
dices and  opinions  and  by  preferring  the  spirit  of  retire- 
ment and  prayer — the  inward  spirit — to  every  other  good 
work  that  you  may  be  able  to  do  and  all  of  which  must 
be  subordinated  to  the  great  work  which  Providence  has 
entrusted  to  you. 

"You  know  and  have  under  your  eyes  the  rules  of  St. 
Sulpice.  God  will  bless  your  works  the  more  closely  you 
observe  these  rules.  Be  one  and  all  of  you  men  of 
peace;  show  yourself  such  in  the  controversies  in  which 
you  may  be  engaged,  or  rather,  which  you  will  avoid 
to  the  best  of  your  ability,  as  far  as  prudence  will  permit, 
for  I  am  convinced  that  your  piety,  your  regularity,  your 
retirement,  and  your  withdrawal  from  the  world,  and  your 
unselfishness  will  bring  you  more  respect  and  will  gain 
more  souls  for  the  Church  than  all  the  most  learned  dis- 
cussions. I  need  not  ask  you  to  love  all  your  confreres 
as  a  father  loves  his  children.  Providence  has  made  you 
their  superior.  Every  society  must  have  a  center  of  unity, 
and  the  superior  of  Baltimore  should  always  be  the  su- 
perior of  the  Sulpicians  employed  elsewhere  in  the 
United  States.  For  your  security  and  the  maintenance 
of  your  little  property,  use  all  the  means  suggested  by 
Christian  prudence.  Do  not  put  off  until  to-morrow  what 
can  be  done  for  this  purpose  to-day. 

"I  fear  I  shall  not  have  the  time  to  close  my  letter.  I 
hasten  to  beg  of  you  to  convey  to  Messrs.  Levadoux,  Rich- 
ard, Flaget,  Ciquard,  my  last  expression  of  affection  for 
them.  How  delighted  I  was  to  receive  news  from  the  first 
three  in  my  prison !  I  am  anxious  that  my  answer  should 
reach  them.  You  will  also  convey  my  regards  to  Messrs. 


8  THE    STTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

David  and  Marechal.  I  cordially  greet  all  the  colleagues 
that  work  in  the  same  house  as  yourself.  God  knows  how 
dear  they  are  to  my  heart. 

"I  finish  with  St.  Paul's  words:  'Ego  scio  quia  non 
amplius  videbitis  faciem  meam.  .  .  .  Et  nunc  commendo 
vos  Deo,  et  verbo  gratia  ipsius,  qui  potens  est  cedificare 
et  dare  hcereditatem  in  sanctificatis  omnibus.' 

"I  must  not  forget  the  young  gentlemen  you  took  with 
you;  you  will  tell  them  that  I  thought  of  them  during 
my  last  moments  and  that  I  pray  God  to  strengthen  them 
and  to  confirm  them  in  His  grace. 

"Please  assure  Mgr.  Carroll  of  the  deep  respect  which  I 
entertain  for  him.  Tell  him  that  I  recommend  you  and 
all  your  confreres  to  his  kindness  and  protection,  of 
which  I  hope  you  will  continue  to  be  worthy. 

"God  bless  M.  Delavau;  he  must  feel  that  God  inspired 
him  with  the  thought  of  accompanying  you.  I  wish  the 
domestics  with  you  all  peace  and  blessing."  * 

On  April  4,  1Y94,  M.  Emery  was  transferred  from  the 
Conciergerie  to  the  College  de  Plessis,  another  Parisian 
prison,  improvised  during  the  Terror.  His  letter,  written 
from  this  prison  to  M.  Montaigne,  one  of  his  Sulpician 
brethren,  and  dated  April  28,  1793,  gives  us  even  a 
clearer  insight  into  the  spirit,  the  aims,  the  motives,  the 
principles,  and  the  interests  of  this  man.  It  shows  us 
his  faith  in  God's  mercy,  his  coolness  and  courage  in 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  presence  of  death,  his  attach- 
ment to  his  Society  and  his  brethren,  and  his  special  in- 
terest in  the  Sulpician  colony  at  Baltimore  as  destined  to 
keep  alive  the  institute  of  which  he  was  the  guardian: 

"In  a  few  hours  I  am  to  appear  before  the  revolution- 
ary tribunal.    I  have  no  doubt  that  I  shall  be  condemned 

*  The  original  of  this  letter  Is  In  the  archives  of  the  seminary  at  Balti- 
more.    Gosselln,  "Vie  de  M.  Emery,"  vol.  1,  p.  343  sqq. 


THE    CALL 


9 


to  death.  So  I  must  express  to  you  without  a  moment's 
loss  my  last  sentiments.  I  begin  by  thanking  you  for  the 
affection  which  you  have  shown  me  during  the  last  days 
of  my  life,  for  the  zeal  with  which  you  have  worked  to 
prolong  my  days,  and  for  your  anxiety  to  provide  for  all 
my  needs.  May  God  reward  you  therefor  both  here  on 
earth  and  hereafter.  Please  assure  my  worthy  predeces- 
sor, M.  Le  Gallic,  and  MM.  Crenier,  Bechet,  Montevis, 
and  Duclaux  that  my  feelings  toward  them  have  remained 
the  same  to  the  end  (these  are  well  known  to  them) .  That 
I  earnestly  wish  them  the  lengthening  of  their  days  in 
these  difficult  times  and  that  I  pray  God  with  all  my 
heart  that,  like  you,  they  may  grow  in  grace  and  in  char- 
ity and  that  we  may  be  all  reunited  in  heaven.  Please 
tell  the  young  men  who  have  been  faithful  to  us  to  the 
end,  and  especially  tell  Lagardiole,  that  I  die  greatly 
moved  by  their  kindness,  and  grateful  to  them  for  the 
favors  they  have  done  us  and  for  all  the  services  they  have 
rendered  us. 

"Please  thank  Adam,  also,  and  Bazin,1  and  assure 
them  of  my  friendship.  I  recommend  them  to  your  con- 
sideration. 

"If  it  is  in  your  power  hereafter  to  keep  up  communica- 
tion with  members  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  tell  them 
that  I  died  a  victim  of  my  love  for  them;  for  it  was  in 
order  to  be  able  to  help  them,  to  be  a  medium  of  corre- 
spondence for  them  whilst  this  was  possible  and  allowable, 
to  watch  over  the  venerated  remains  of  M.  Olier  and  M.  de 
Bretonvilliers,  that  I  have  resisted  all  kinds  of  pressure 
urging  me  to  withdraw  from  the  seminary  and  to  disap- 
pear. I  do  not  fathom  God's  designs;  they  are  impene- 
trable, and  I  bow  before  them.  I  dare  not,  therefore, 
speculate  on  the  restoration  of  peace  in  our  country,  on 
the  return  and  the  reunion  of  my  brethren.  I  only  remark 

1  The  former  was  M.  Emery's  domestic  and  the  latter  the  porter  of  the 
seminary. 


10  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

that  it  is  my  most  ardent  wish  that  they  may  be  reunited. 

"I  die  in  the  hope  and  consolation  that  the  name  and 
spirit  of  St.  Sulpice  will  not  wholly  perish.  Maryland 
will  preserve  them.  You  know  my  sentiments  as  to  that 
institution,  so  dear  to  my  heart  and  so  important  to  re- 
ligion. I  have  every  reason  to  think  that  you  will  make 
these  known  if  necessary  and  that  you  will  carry  them  out 
faithfully.  Farewell,  my  dear  M.  Montaigne.  If  this  let- 
ter reaches  you  before  my  decease,  you  will  aid  me  with 
your  prayers  at  the  moment  of  death,  and  with  those  of 
the  persons  whom  you  will  inform  of  my  situation.  I  die 
trusting  to  God's  mercy,  which  has  never  helped  me  more 
strikingly  than  during  the  last  days  of  my  life. 

"May  the  blessing  of  M.  Olier  and  of  all  the  holy  priests 
of  our  Society  rest  on  you."  1 

But  M.  Emery  was  not  destined  to  perish  by  the  guillo- 
tine. When  Robespierre  fell,  six  months  after  this  letter 
was  written,  the  gates  of  the  College  de  Plessis  were  thrown 
open,  and  most  of  the  unfortunates  who  had  so  long  lin- 
gered there  in  fear  and  trembling  were  restored  to  the 
outer  world,  and  among  them  M.  Emery  (October  25, 
1794).  His  friend,  M.  Montaigne,  at  first  gave  him  hos- 
pitality, but  the  superior  of  the  Sulpicians  felt  that  the 
seminary  was  the  proper  place  for  him.  Still,  he  soon  rec- 
ognized that  the  storm  had  not  blown  over  and  that  Paris 
was  not  a  place  of  safety  for  him.  He  betook  himself  to 
his  birthplace  at  Gex,  on  the  Swiss  border.  Immediately 
on  his  arrival  there  he  sent  a  letter  to  Pope  Pius  VI,  with 
whom  he  had  already  corresponded  during  his  captivity. 
He  gave  the  Pope  an  account  of  the  condition  of  his  So- 
ciety and  his  plans  for  the  future.  As  to  his  own  person, 
he  expressed  the  desire  to  join  his  brethren  who  were 
working  in  the  United  States,  for  "if  France  were  lost  to 
the  Catholic  Church  it  is  very  likely  that  God  has  pre- 

1  Gosselln,  op.  cit.,  vol.  1,  379. 


VERY  REV.  JAMES  ANDREW  EMERY. 
Ninth  Superior  General  of  St.  Sulpice. 


THE    CALL 


11 


pared  in  the  United  States  a  compensation  for  the  loss  of 
France."  x 

From  the  answer  sent  to  M.  Emery,  March  10,  1796, 
by  M.  Caleppi,  at  the  Pope's  command,  we  learn  that  Pius 
VI  was  much  impressed  by  the  zeal  and  devotion  to  the 
Holy  See  evinced  by  M.  Emery  and  his  Society  during 
the  trials  of  the  ^Revolution,  and  that  he  approved  his  in- 
tention to  betake  himself  to  the  United  States.  At  the 
same  time,  M.  Emery  was  advised  that,  however  much  his 
American  plans  were  appreciated,  his  presence  in  France, 
where  he  had  so  great  an  influence  for  encouraging  and 
guiding  the  clergy,  was,  for  the  time  being,  more  impor- 
tant. In  accordance  with  this  suggestion,  the  loyal  old 
priest  remained  in  his  native  country.  He  returned  to 
Paris,  where  he  resumed  his  activity  as  one  of  the  vicars- 
general  who  governed  the  archdiocese  of  Paris  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  archbishop,  Mgr.  de  Juigne.  By  his  prudence 
and  wisdom  he  maintained  harmony,  as  far  as  possible, 
among  the  remaining  loyal  priests,  and  prevented  the 
widening  of  the  schism  which  was  the  result  of  the  civil 
constitution  of  the  clergy.  In  this  way  he  tided  over  the 
dangerous  eddies  which  threatened  to  wreck  the  metro- 
politan Church  until  Bonaparte  brought  order  to  the 
French  state  and  comparative  peace  to  the  French  Church. 

His  ability  and  wisdom  soon  became  known  to  Na- 
poleon, who  respected  his  learning,  his  practical  wisdom, 
and  the  mixture  of  simplicity,  boldness,  and  tact  which 
led  him  to  speak  the  truth  without  fear  of  the  conse- 
quences. Thrice  the  emperor  offered  him  a  bishopric, 
which  Emery  thrice  refused,  for  to  him  it  appeared  trea- 
son to  abandon  the  cause  of  his  Society,  all  broken  up  and 
dispersed  as  it  was.  Though  at  first  angered  by  the  good 
abbe's  refusal  of  the  sees  of  Arras,  Autun,  and  Troyes 
(1802),  the  stubborn-minded  Corsican  soon  became  recon- 
ciled to  his  sturdy  sense  of  duty,  and  permitted  him  to 

i  Gosselin,  op.  cit.,  vol.  1,  379. 


12  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

build  up  again  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  However, 
the  head  of  St.  Sulpice  never  possessed  the  real  confi- 
dence of  the  wily  Corsican.  One  day  he  would  advise 
his  uncle,  Cardinal  Fesch,  to  lay  in  as  valuable  a  store  of 
theological  knowledge  as  M.  Emery  possessed,  on  the  next 
he  would  criticize  the  same  cardinal  for  being  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  the  Sulpicians,  who  were  a 
pack  of  intriguers. 

Meantime  the  unwearied  superior  continued  rebuilding 
his  Society,  and  in  a  few  years  it  again  had  control  of  a 
dozen  diocesan  seminaries.  Nor  did  M.  Emery  give  way 
in  the  least  to  the  spirit  of  innovation.  What  MM.  Olier 
and  de  Bretonvilliers  had  enacted  must  be  carried  out  to 
the  letter,  ancient  rules  and  customs  observed,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  founders  respected  in  every  detail.  When  Na- 
poleon had  consulted  Cardinal  Fesch  he  found  all  these  pro- 
ceedings of  the  aged  superior,  who  had  now  become  a  decid- 
ed septuagenarian,  praiseworthy,  or  at  least  tolerable ;  but 
when  he  lent  his  ear  to  the  whisperings  of  that  treacherous 
policeman,  Fouche,  he  threatened  the  very  existence  of  the 
reviving  Society.  Nevertheless,  he  appointed  M.  Emery 
to  the  council  of  the  newly  founded  University  of  France, 
and  made  him  a  member  of  a  commission  of  cardinals  and 
bishops  summoned  to  find  the  means  of  circumventing  the 
imprisoned  pontiff,  Pius  VII,  who  was  struggling  for  the 
rights  of  the  Church.  The  cardinals  and  bishops  found 
a  way  out  of  the  labyrinth,  but  Emery  mildly  but  posi- 
tively declined  to  sign  their  document.  He  did  not  openly 
condemn  Napoleon's  marriage  with  Marie  Louise,  but  he 
stayed  at  home  when  the  ceremony  took  place.  At  last 
Napoleon's  patience  was  exhausted,  and  in  May,  1810, 
under  the  influence  of  Fouche,  he  ordered  the  Minister 
of  Public  Worship  to  dissolve  the  Congregation  of  St.  Sul- 
pice and  to  compel  the  venerable  superior,  who  was  in  his 
seventy-eighth  year,  to  leave  the  seminary.  Again  the 


TJ1K    CALL 


13 


threatened  blow  was  not  delivered,  though  M.  Emery  him- 
self was  obliged  to  quit  the  seminary.  Once  more  the  em- 
peror called  a  commission  of  cardinals  and  bishops,  making 
M.  Emery  a  member,  and  again  he  was  the  only  simple 
priest  on  the  commission.  The  violent  language  of  the 
arbitrary  Corsican  and  his  tools  dragooned  the  prelates  into 
an  effort  to  comply  with  his  wishes.  They  sacrificed  the 
Pope's  right  to  confirm  the  emperor's  candidates  for  va- 
cant bishoprics,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  consent  to 
a  national  council,  which  was  only  too  likely  to  lead  to  a 
national  schism.  M.  Emery,  in  moderate  but  positive 
terms,  disagreed  with  them. 

Then  Napoleon  summoned  the  entire  commission  to  ap- 
pear before  him  and  the  grandees  of  his  council  of  state, 
and  at  great  length  inveighed  against  the  obstinacy  of  the 
Pope  and  threatened  the  most  radical  measures.  Not  a 
word  of  protest  or  dissent  came  from  the  great  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries.  Then  Napoleon  turned  to  M.  Emery  and  asked 
him  what  he  had  to  say  on  the  question.  "Sire,  I  can 
have  no  other  opinion  than  what  is  contained  in  the  cate- 
chism published  by  your  orders,"  and  then  he  showed 
that,  according  to  the  catechism,  the  Pope  was  the  supreme 
ruler  of  the  Church.  Napoleon  was  struck  by  this  answer 
and  impressed  by  the  aged  priest's  further  exposition  of 
his  position.  Three  times  he  modestly  but  firmly  con- 
tested the  emperor's  views  and  defended  the  pontiff's 
rights.  Of  the  distinguished  prelates  Napoleon  hardly  took 
any  notice.  When  he  arose  to  dismiss  the  conference  he  po- 
litely bowed  to  M.  Emery  and  to  no  one  else.  M.  Emery 
left  at  once,  whereupon  several  of  the  prelates  approached 
Napoleon  to  excuse  the  octogenarian.  "You  are  mistaken," 
he  replied;  "I  am  not  at  all  displeased  with  M.  Emery; 
he  spoke  like  a  man  who  knows  his  business.  I  like  to  be 
spoken  to  in  this  way.  Of  course,  he  does  not  agree  with 
my  views,  but  every  one  must  have  his  own  opinion  free 


14       THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

here."  Before  leaving,  Talleyrand,  who  had  been  present 
at  the  conference,  said  to  one  of  the  prelates:  "I  knew 
M.  Emery  had  much  pluck,  but  I  did  not  think  he  had  so 
much.  He  has  the  ability  frankly  to  give  his  views  to  the 
emperor  without  displeasing  him."  A  few  days  after- 
ward Napoleon  told  his  uncle,  who  desired  to  speak  to 
him  on  Church  matters:  "Be  silent;  you  are  an  igno- 
ramus. Where  did  you  learn  your  theology  ?  M.  Emery, 
who  knows  his  theology,  is  the  man  with  whom  I  must 
speak  on  these  matters."  1 

A  few  months  later,  death  called  the  venerable  Sulpician 
to  his  reward.  To  the  last  he  met  his  trials  with  gentle- 
ness, firmness,  and  a  smiling  face,  convinced  that  St.  Sul- 
pice,  though  for  the  second  time  under  his  rule  smitten 
and  broken  up,  would  rise  again  and  do  even  more  glori- 
ous work  in  the  future  than  it  had  done  in  the  past. 

Such  was  the  man  destined  by  Providence  to  help  Bishop 
Carroll  in  his  need,  and  to  assist  him  to  establish  a  semi- 
nary according  to  the  best  European  pattern,  to  furnish 
him  with  missionaries  especially  fitted  to  do  the  work  of 
the  Church  in  the  new  republic,  and  to  dissipate  much 
of  the  prejudice  still  rampant  there,  notwithstanding  the 
toleration  proclaimed  by  its  constitution.  The  men  whom 
M.  Emery  could  send  to  the  aid  of  the  head  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church  were  the  best-trained  educators  of  candidates 
for  the  priesthood  to  be  found  in  Europe,  devoted  to  this 
work  and  to  nothing  else,  having  no  other  aims  and  no 
other  vocation.  Their  rules  forbade  them  to  take  up  any 
exterior  form  of  ministry,  as  they  called  it.  They  were 
not  to  preach  to  the  faithful,  no  matter  what  their  elo- 
quence; not  to  assume  the  direction  of  nuns  or  of  ladies 
in  the  world,  whatever  might  be  their  wisdom;  they  were 
solely  to  perfect  their  scholarship  and  to  develop  their 
science  of  guiding  the  future  pastors  of  souls,  not  only 

1  Gosselln,  op.  cit.,  vol.  11,  p.  300  sqq. 


THE    CALL 


15 


by  their  extensive  learning,  but  also  by  practising  and 
inculcating  the  practice  of  all  that  wisdom  and  experience 
had  shown  to  be  productive  of  solid  virtue,  good  habits, 
and  moral  steadiness.  Such  men  must  needs  bring  out  all 
that  was  best  and  admirable  in  the  scholars  entrusted  to 
them ;  they  must  make  a  very  favorable  impression  upon 
the  people  among  whom  their  lot  was  to  be  cast,  for,  as 
events  proved,  these  learned  but  unpretentious  gentlemen 
were  fated  to  be  for  many  long  years  most  effective  mis- 
sionaries in  their  new  home. 

They  went  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel,  not  among  sav- 
ages, where  the  missionary  must  combine  self-denial  and 
enthusiasm  with  something  of  the  spirit  of  adventure,  but 
among  people  whose  civilization  differed  but  little  from 
their  own  and  who  must  chiefly  be  impressed  by  the  holi- 
ness, the  self-sacrifice,  and  the  learning  of  the  men  who 
brought  them  new  views  and  a  new  religion.  It  was  a 
great  advantage  to  the  budding  Church  of  the  United 
States  that  Dubourg,  Dubois,  Marechal,  Flaget,  Brute,  and 
David  were  men,  not  of  the  type  of  missionary  who  might 
impress  an  Indian  tribe,  but  who  in  learning,  scholarship, 
and  culture  were  vastly  superior  to  the  average  American 
minister  of  the  Gospel.  They  were  well  equipped  to 
mingle  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  society,  as  we  may  see 
from  the  impression  produced  by  the  Abbe  Dubois  on  the 
best  men  of  Virginia.  The  same  favorable  impressions 
were  created  by  the  other  Sulpicians  whom  M.  Emery 
sent  to  America.  They  combined  fervent  zeal  for  the 
Catholic  faith  with  polished  and  agreeable  manners,  great 
tact,  and  the  absence  of  all  aggressiveness. 

We  now  return  to  Bishop  Carroll's  efforts  to  establish  the 
first  American  seminary.  As  already  mentioned,  among 
the  European  prelates  whose  assistance  he  sought  to  carry 
out  his  plan,  was  the  papal  nuncio  in  Paris,  Mgr.  Du- 
gnani.  Just  at  this  time  M.  Emery,  foreseeing  the  dangers 


16  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    TTNITED    STATES 

threatening  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  in  France  and  cast- 
ing about  for  a  new  field  of  activity  for  his  Society,  had 
his  attention  drawn  to  the  United  States.  But  he  little 
thought  of  settling  his  brethren  at  Baltimore,  his  eyes  be- 
ing at  first  directed  farther  westward,  toward  Ohio. 

In  1789-90  M.  du  Yal  d'Espremesnil,  the  Marquis  de 
Marnesia,  and  a  number  of  other  Royalist  gentlemen  em- 
barked on  a  fantastic  scheme  of  colonization,1  which  at- 
tracted great  attention  in  France  among  all  classes  of  peo- 
ple, including  the  journalists.  The  authors  of  this  scheme, 
which  for  various  reasons  proved  a  total  failure,  not  only 
planned  but  partly  made  several  settlements  in  the  Scioto 
district,  among  them  Marietta  and  Gallipolis.  One  of 
the  Sulpicians  of  Paris,  the  Rev.  M.  Gallet,  suggested 
that  the  Society  found  a  seminary  at  Gallipolis,  but  when 
M.  Emery  discussed  the  scheme  with  Mgr.  Dugnani,  the 
latter  drew  his  attention  to  the  newly  founded  bishopric 
of  Baltimore  and  to  Bishop  Carroll's  plan  of  founding  a 
seminary  for  the  education  of  native  priests.  The  hint  was 
not  thrown  away  on  M.  Emery.  Some  time  afterward, 
shortly  before  August  15,  1790,  he  called  a  general  assem- 
bly of  his  Society  at  Paris.  He  spoke  to  his  brethren  of 
the  danger  of  their  dispersion,  and,  waving  aside  the 
thought  of  joining  the  Scioto  colony,  he  warmly  espoused 
Mgr.  Dugnani's  views  on  the  foundation  of  a  seminary 
at  Baltimore.  The  assembly  was  convinced;  it  approved 
of  the  project,  and,  what  is  more,  it  authorized  the  su- 
perior-general to  devote  at  least  a  part  of  the  savings  of 
the  Society  to  the  realization  of  the  scheme. 

M.  Emery  lost  not  a  moment,  but  forthwith  put  himself 
in  communication  with  Bishop  Carroll,  who,  since  the 
early  part  of  the  summer,  had  been  in  England  arrang- 
ing for  his  consecration,  which  was  administered  by  Bishop 
Walmesley  at  Lulworth  Castle  on  August  15,  1790.  In 

1  See  Herbermann,  "A  French  Emigre1  Colony  In  the  United  States, 
1789-1793,"  In  "Historical  Records  and  Studies,"  vol.  i,  pp.  77-96. 


THE    CALL 


17 


his  letter  M.  Emery  begged  Bishop  Carroll,  if  he  approved 
the  proposal  and  if  the  latter  intended  to  pass  through 
Paris,  to  allow  him  to  confer  with  him  on  the  subject 
At  the  same  time  he  offered  him  the  hospitality  of  the  semi- 
nary.1    For  some  reason  unknown  to  us,  the  bishop  did 
not  go  to  Paris,  but  it  was  agreed  between  him  and  the 
Sulpician  superior  that  the  Eev.  M.  Nagot,  at  that  time 
a  director  of  the  Paris  Seminary,  should  meet  him  at  Lon- 
don.   A  letter  from  Bishop  Carroll  to  the  Papal  Secretary 
of  State,  Cardinal  Antonelli,  dated  September  9,  1790, 
gives  us  his  version  of  the  transaction.    "At  the  request  of 
His  Excellency,  the  apostolic  nuncio,  one  of  the  directors 
of  St  Sulpice  (M.  tfagot)  came  to  London.    In  our  con- 
ferences we  have  determined  to  establish  a  seminary  at 
Baltimore.    From  this  institution  we  must  hope  great  ad- 
vantages will  accrue  to  religion.     In  my  opinion,  it  is 
clearly  a  providential  dispensation,  in  our  regard,  that 
such  excellent  priests  are  inspired  to  bring  us  such  valua- 
ble help  at  a  time  when  our  new  diocese  is  in  such  pressing 
need  of  their  services."  2 

About  a  month  after  his  consecration,  Bishop  Carroll 
wrote  to  Lord  Arundell  as  follows  :  "We  arranged  all  pre- 
liminaries and  I  expect  at  Baltimore  early  in  the  summer 
some  of  the  gentlemen  of  that  institution  to  set  hard  to 
work  ;  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  they  will  find  means  to 
carry  their  plan  into  effect.  Thus  we  shall  be  provided 
with  a  house  fit  for  the  reception  of,  and  further  improve- 
ment in  the  higher  sciences  of,  the  young  men  whom  God 
may  call  to  an  ecclesiastical  state  after  their  classical  edu- 
cation is  finished  in  our  Georgetown  academy.  While  I 
cannot  but  thank  Divine  Providence  for  opening  on  us  such 
a  prospect,  I  feel  great  sorrow  in  the  reflection  that  we  owe 


fons*  Sulpiclennes"  in  "L'UniversiW  Catholique,"  Aug.  15th, 
1905,  p.  570. 


18  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

such  a  benefit  to  the  distressed  state  of  religion  in 
France."  * 

M.  Emery  did  not  fail  to  inform  the  Roman  authorities 
of  his  agreement  with  the  Bishop  of  Baltimore,  and  re- 
ceived a  letter  warmly  approving  it.  This  letter  of  the 
Holy  Father  greatly  encouraged  the  Sulpicians,  and  they 
proceeded  at  once  to  carry  out  the  new  undertaking.  The 
first  step  was  to  select  the  pioneers  who  were  to  found  the 
seminary  at  Baltimore.  The  choice  made  by  M.  Emery 
showed  alike  his  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  the  new  estab- 
lishment, his  acquaintance  with  the  characters  of  his 
confreres,  and  his  determination  to  give  to  the  Church 
of  the  United  States  the  very  best  forces  that  he  had  at 
his  disposal.  He  selected  to  be  head  of  the  new  seminary 
M.  Nagot,  a  man  full  of  wisdom  and  of  years  (he  was 
fifty-seven  years  of  age),  who  had  been  connected  with  the 
Paris  Seminary  for  many  years.  Before  becoming  a  di- 
rector there,  he  had  been  professor  of  theology  and  head 
of  the  school  of  philosophy.  That  he  enjoyed  the  special 
confidence  of  the  superior-general,  is  evident  from  their 
correspondence.  One  of  M.  Emery's  last  letters  was  di- 
rected to  his  venerable  friend.  Among  his  former  scholars 
had  been  the  Irish  priest,  the  celebrated  Abbe  Edgeworth, 
who,  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  prepared  Louis  XVI  for  death. 

Next  to  M.  Nagot,  must  be  mentioned  the  Eeverend  M. 
Gamier,  a  very  able  man,  especially  as  a  linguist,  and 
destined  in  after  times  to  become  a  close  friend  of  M. 
Emery.  He  was  twenty-nine  years  of  age  at  this  time, 
but  had  already  been  professor  of  theology  at  Lyons.  The 
other  two  Sulpicians  who  accompanied  M.  Nagot  were  the 
Rev.  M.  Levadoux,  director  of  the  seminary  at  Bourges, 
and  the  Rev.  M.  Tessier,  a  native  of  the  diocese  of  Angers, 
then  thirty-two  years  of  age,  who  had  been  professor  for 
two  years  at  the  seminary  at  Viviers.  There  was  a  fifth 

1  Shea,  "Life  and  Times  of  Archbishop  Carroll,"  vol.  il,  p.  379. 


THE    CALL  19 

priest  in  the  company,  but  he  was  not  a  Sulpician.  This 
was  the  Very  Rev.  Canon  Delavau  of  the  diocese  of  Tours. 
The  wild  excesses  of  the  Revolution  had  so  impressed  the 
old  gentleman  that  he  determined  to  leave  his  country 
in  good  time,  and  had  arranged  with  the  Sulpicians  to 
live  with  them  at  Baltimore  and  pay  for  his  support. 

M.  Emery  was  certainly  happy  in  the  choice  of  the 
priests  whom  he  sent  to  America,  but  he  did  more  for  the 
new  institution.  As  a  seminary  without  students  would 
be  a  paradox,  and  as  it  was  very  doubtful  that  Georgetown, 
Bishop  Carroll's  new  academy,  would  be  able  to  furnish 
students  of  theology  for  some  years  to  come,  he  made 
vigorous  efforts  to  secure  such  students  in  the  French 
seminaries  under  Sulpician  guidance,  and  he  was  not  un- 
successful. Five  young  Levites,  all  of  them  speaking  the 
English  language,  volunteered  to  become  the  pioneers  of 
the  Baltimore  seminary  theologians.  They  were  MM. 
Tulloh  and  Floyd,  both  natives  of  England ;  Perrineau,  an 
English-speaking  Canadian;  Edward  Caldwell,  born  at 
Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  a  recent  convert,  and,  lastly, 
Jean  de  Montdesir  of  the  diocese  of  Chartres. 

Nor  was  the  material  side  of  the  new  institution  neg- 
lected. A  friend  of  M.  Emery  had  made  him  a  donation 
of  30,000  livres  with  which  to  start  this  new  branch  of  the 
Sulpicians.  From  the  savings  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sul- 
pice,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  of  the  Sulpician  superior 
to  Bishop  Carroll,  Father  Emery  devoted  100,000  francs 
to  the  establishment  of  the  new  seminary.  We  know  that, 
in  addition  to  the  purchase  money  of  the  seminary  build- 
ings and  grounds,  many  other  expenses  were  covered.  The 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice  paid,  not  only  for  the  passage  to 
Baltimore  of  M.  Nagot  and  his  fellow-professors,  but  also 
for  their  maintenance  during  two  years  after  their  arrival. 
Moreover,  they  were  provided  with  the  necessary  sacred 
vessels  and  vestments  for  the  use  of  the  priests,  altar-lin- 


20  THE    SULPICIANS   Iff    THE    UNITED   STATES 

ens,  and  decorations,  and  a  collection  of  theological  and 
other  spiritual  books  as  the  beginning  of  a  library.  Surely 
Providence  had  been  kind  to  Bishop  Carroll  when  it  pro^ 
vided  him,  not  only  with  a  splendid  seminary  staff,  but 
also  with  its  material  outfit,  without  entailing  any  outlay 
on  his  part. 

But  M.  Emery  was  not  satisfied  with  providing  for  the 
physical  needs  of  his  brethren.  His  motives  for  dispatch- 
ing them  to  the  new  world  were  nobler  and  loftier,  his 
foremost  aim  being  that  they  should  carry  on  the  work  of 
St.  Sulpice  in  the  same  spirit  with  which  it  had  been  in- 
spired in  France,  the  work  of  providing  worthy  and  holy 
priests  for  the  faithful.  We  cannot  do  better  than  to  trans- 
late a  part  of  the  instructions,  which,  along  with  the  rules 
of  the  Society,  were  to  be  the  guide  of  M.  Nagot  and  the 
other  professors: 

"The  priests  of  St.  Sulpice  sent  to  found  a  seminary 
at  Baltimore,"  wrote  M.  Emery,  "will  endeavor,  above  all 
things,  to  be  inspired  by  the  loftiest  ideal  of  their  vocation. 
They  will  bear  in  mind  that  their  seminary  is  the  first  and 
will  be  for  a  long  time  the  only  institution  of  the  kind 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  that  it  is  intended  to  edu- 
cate in  this  seminary  all  the  apostolic  laborers  who  in  the 
designs  of  Providence  are  destined  to  strengthen  Catholics 
in  their  faith,  to  bring  back  heretics  to  the  bosom  of  the 
Church,  to  bear  the  light  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Eedskins; 
in  a  word,  to  spread  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  His  Church 
in  a  country  much  larger  than  the  whole  of  Europe. 
Therefore,  they  will  do  everything  in  their  power  to  reach 
a  high  degree  of  sanctity,  convinced  that  they  will  do  more 
good  by  their  holy  lives  than  by  their  teachings  and  their 
exhortations.  Let  them  often  call  to  mind  that  they  are 
destined  to  perpetuate  the  spirit  and  the  name  of  their 
Society  in  the  new  world ;  and  let  them  always  keep  before 


THE   CALL  21 

their  eyes  the  rules  and  the  practices  of  St.  Sulpice,  in 
order  to  be  guided  by  them  as  far  as  possible.  .  .  .  Since 
it  has  pleased  God  to  bless  till  now  the  work  of  the  So- 
ciety of  St  Sulpice,  experience  convinces  us  that  its  spirit 
is  good;  and  since  its  proper  and  characteristic  aim  is  to 
concern  itself  only  with  the  education  of  the  clergy,  the 
directors  of  the  seminary  at  Baltimore  will  confine  and  con- 
secrate themselves  entirely  to  this  work ;  and  if  at  the  be- 
ginning and  under  unusual  circumstances  they  find  them- 
selves compelled  to  take  up  duties  foreign  to  this  work, 
they  must  consider  themselves  to  be  under  conditions  out 
of  their  element,  and  not  to  be  satisfied  until  they  can  re- 
turn to  their  special  mode  of  life.  .  .  . 

"The  peculiar  spirit  of  the  Society,  moreover,  is  a  spirit 
of  unworldliness.  They  will,  therefore,  have  as  little  in- 
tercourse as  possible  with  the  world ;  and  of  all  their  pious 
practices,  those  to  which  they  will  especially  devote  them- 
selves are  meditation  and  their  annual  retreat.  In  order 
to  strengthen  themselves  in  their  love  of  the  inner  spirit, 
they  will  adopt  the  festivals  in  honor  of  the  inner  life  of 
Our  Lord  and  the  Blessed  Virgin.  .  .  . 

"The  seminary  at  Baltimore  will  bear  the  name  of  St 
Sulpice,  will  be  under  the  special  protection  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  and  will  also  accept  the  other  patrons  of  St.  Sul- 
pice. .  .  ." 

Having  thus  provided  for  their  wants,  both  corporal  and 
spiritual,  M.  Emery  bade  farewell  to  his  brethren  who  were 
destined  to  bring  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  to  the  United 
States.  They  embarked  on  April  8,  1791,  at  St.  Malo,  in 
Brittany,  where  an  American  vessel  had  been  chartered. 
Among  their  fellow-passengers  was  the  celebrated  Chateau- 
briand, at  that  time  a  young  man  twenty  years  of  age,  for 
whom  the  Sulpicians  seem  to  have  had  no  charm.  He  him- 
self tells  us  that  he  met  them  four  years  too  late,  having 
in  the  meanwhile  become  strong-minded,  that  is  to  say, 


22  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

interpreting  his  comment,  weak-minded.  Their  voyage 
was  long  and  painful,  lasting  three  months  and  two  days 
(July  10). 

Bishop  Carroll  was  still  in  Europe,  and  so  the  Sulpician 
company  was  welcomed  at  Baltimore  by  the  Reverend 
Charles  Sewall,  resident  pastor  at  Baltimore,  who  took 
them  to  a  house  at  94  Baltimore  Street.  This  house,  which 
was  near  the  present  city  hall,  has  disappeared,  owing  to 
the  opening  of  the  present  North  Street.  Bishop  Carroll 
had  made  sure  of  a  hospitable  welcome  for  the  heads  of  the 
new  seminary  by  announcing  their  coming  to  the  faithful 
of  his  diocese.  "I  propose,"  he  said,  "fixing  them  very 
near  to  my  own  home,  the  cathedral  of  Baltimore,  that 
they  may  be,  as  it  were,  the  clergy  of  the  Church,  and 
contribute  to  the  dignity  of  divine  worship.  This  is  a 
great  and  auspicious  event  for  our  diocese,  but  it  is  a  mel- 
ancholy reflection  that  we  owe  so  great  a  blessing  to  the 
lamentable  catastrophe  in  France." 

M.  Nagot,  the  superior  of  the  new  seminary,  lost  no 
time  in  finding  a  home  for  himself  and  his  brethren  in 
the  metropolis  of  Maryland.  At  this  time,  of  course,  Balti- 
more was  but  a  village  compared  with  the  great  city  of 
to-day.  M.  Nagot,  on  looking  around  for  a  suitable  site 
and  building,  for  there  was  no  time  to  erect  a  new  building 
for  the  seminary,  chose  the  place  where  the  seminary  is 
still  located,  at  Paca  and  St.  Mary's  Streets,  which,  in 
1790,  was  occupied  by  a  public  house  called  "One  Mile 
Tavern."  This  he  hired  at  first,  but  shortly  afterward  he 
bought  it  for  £850,  equivalent  to  about  $2,266.66  at  the 
present  time.  Alterations  were  made  without  delay  and 
pushed  with  such  vigor  that  on  the  18th  of  July  the  Sul- 
picians  were  able  to  occupy  their  new  home.  Four  days 
later  M.  Nagot  could  celebrate  the  first  Mass  in  the  chapel. 
The  other  rooms  were  next  altered  according  to  need,  fur- 

iGosselin,  op.  ctt.,  vol.  i,  p.  234;  Shea,  "Life  and  Times  of  Archbishop 
Carroll,"  vol.  ii,  p.  380. 


THE    CALL  23 

rushed  for  the  new  occupants,  and  on  the  3d  of  October  the 
regular  work  of  the  seminary  was  begun. 

From  the  very  beginning  the  impression  made  by  the 
seminary  priests  on  bishop,  clergy,  and  laity  was  most  fa- 
vorable. As  early  as  the  23d  of  April,  1792,  only  a  few 
months  after  his  return  from  Europe  to  Baltimore,  Bishop 
Carroll  wrote  to  the  Cardinal  Prefect  of  Propaganda: 

"The  establishment  of  a  seminary  is  certainly  a  new  and 
extraordinary  spectacle  for  the  people  of  this  country ;  the 
remarkable  piety  of  these  priests  is  admirable,  and  their 
example  is  a  stimulant  and  spur  to  all  who  feel  themselves 
called  to  work  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord.  Such  are  the 
great  and  remarkable  effects  of  God's  bounty.  But  what 
is  still  more  important  is  that,  owing  to  the  establishment 
of  this  seminary,  the  clergy  will  be  brought  up  in  the 
purity  of  faith  and  in  holiness  of  conduct.  All  our  hopes 
are  founded  on  the  seminary  of  Baltimore.  Since  the 
arrival  of  the  priests  of  St.  Sulpice,  the  celebration  of  the 
offices  of  the  Church  and  the  dignity  of  divine  worship 
have  made  a  great  impression,  so  that,  though  the  church 
of  Baltimore  is  hardly  worthy  of  the  name  of  cathedral, 
if  we  consider  its  style  and  its  size,  it  may  well  be  looked 
upon  as  an  episcopal  church  in  view  of  the  number  of  its 
clergy."  * 

1  Andrfi  in  "L'Universite  Catholique,"  Lyons,  vol.  llx,  nouvelle  sfirie,  pp. 
574-575. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  ST.  SULPICE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  Eev.  M.  Nagot  and  his  fellow-professors  had  now 
permanently  made  their  home  in  Baltimore  and  were 
ready  for  work.     But  before  we  begin  the  story  of  these 
pioneer  Sulpicians,  it  seems  not  inappropriate  to  say  a 
few  words  in  general  about  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice 
and  their  association.    In  many  particulars  the  Sulpicians 
are  unlike  the  other  Catholic  religious.    In  fact,  they  do 
not  call  themselves  religious  and  are  not  such  in  the  canon- 
ical sense  of  the  word.    Because  their  lives  and  their  work 
do  not  bring  them  in  contact  with  the  world,  they  are  but 
little  known  even  among  the  Catholic  laity.    If  the  other 
orders  be  likened  to  the  golden  sunflower,  which  stands 
in  the  open  and  challenges  the  attention  and  admiration 
even  of  the  casual  passer-by,  the  Sulpicians  may  be  com- 
pared to  the  modest  violet,  which  conceals  its  fascinating 
colors  and  its  charming  fragrance  in  some  unobserved 
nook.     The  Sulpicians  are  numbered  by  the  tens  where 
many  other  religious  societies  are  numbered  by  the  thou- 
sands.    It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  that  they  should 
be  comparatively  unknown  and  that  it  should  appear  need- 
ful,  when  beginning  this  record  of  their  work  in  the 
United  States,  to  say  a  few  words  about  their  aims,  their 
peculiarities,  and  their  history. 

One  of  the  most  vital  and  fruitful  measures  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  was  the  decree  for  the  reform  of  clerical 
education  passed  on  July  15,  1563.  It  provided  especially 

24 


BEGINNINGS   OF   ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES      25 

for  the  training  of  poor  candidates  for  the  secular  priest- 
hood. The  wealthy  could  go  to  the  universities  and  the 
monks  to  the  monastic  schools,  while  a  large  proportion 
of  the  secular  clergy  received  a  superficial  and  mostly 
practical  education  from  the  country  pastors.  It  em- 
braced the  explanation  of  the  Pater  Foster,  the  Credo, 
the  liturgical  formulas,  the  Poenitentiale,  the  Church  cal- 
endar, the  liturgical  chant,  the  ability  to  write  documents 
and  letters,  and  the  explanation  of  the  most  important 
parts  of  Holy  Writ,  especially  the  Psalms.1  When  the 
Reformation,  therefore,  invaded  the  rural  parishes  and 
preachers  from  the  towns  appealed  to  the  village  farmer, 
it  was  clear  that  the  country  priest  must  receive  a  new 
and  fuller  training.  In  England  Cardinal  Pole  started 
this  new  education  in  his  diocese  in  1556,  and  here  for 
the  first  time  we  meet  with  the  word  seminary  to  desig- 
nate an  institution  for  the  education  of  candidates  for  the 
priesthood.  After  the  Council '  of  Trent,  more  or  less 
strenuous  efforts  were  made  in  various  countries  to  carry 
out  its  decree  and  to  establish  seminaries. 

The  decree  requiring  the  establishment  of  diocesan 
seminaries  was  passed  largely  under  the  inspiration  of 
the  archbishop  of  Milan,  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  in  July, 
1563.  He  was  the  nephew  of  Pope  Pius  IV,  and  strongly 
urged  his  uncle  to  compel  the  enforcement  of  the  decree. 
The  Pontiff  readily  responded,  and  in  1565  the  Grand 
Seminary  of  Rome  was  founded.  The  Council  of  Trent 
adjourned  shortly  after  the  passage  of  the  seminary  de- 
cree, and  the  returning  Fathers  were  face  to  face  with 
this  new  practical  problem.  In  Italy  the  work  was  taken 
in  hand  at  once  by  several  prelates,  foremost  among 
them,  Cardinal  Borromeo,  who  in  1565  opened  his  Grand 
Seminary  at  Milan,  which  he  placed  in  charge  of  the 
Jesuits. 

1  Slebengartner  In  Herder's  "Klrchen-Lexlkon." 


26  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

As  the  Tridentine  decree  enacted  that  the  episcopal 
seminaries  were  not  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  regulars 
except  with  the  special  sanction  of  the  Holy  See,  this  ar- 
rangement proved  only  temporary.  A  few  years  later, 
St.  Charles  placed  his  seminary  in  charge  of  the  Oblate 
priests  of  his  diocese.  Like  the  Oratorians  of  St.  Philip 
Neri,  the  Oblates  were  a  society  of  secular  priests,  who 
lived  in  community,  but  took  no  permanent  vow.  Their 
superior  was  the  archbishop.  Although  not  founded  ex- 
clusively to  be  seminary  teachers,  for  they  undertook  all 
kinds  of  sacerdotal  work,  nevertheless,  if  the  Milan  semi- 
nary was  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  secular  priests,  the 
Oblates  were  obviously  especially  well  fitted  for  this  work. 
We  have  dwelt  upon  this  foundation,  as  the  Oblates  of 
St.  Charles  were  the  first  society  of  secular  priests  to 
whom  was  confided  the  education  of  candidates  for  the 
priesthood  in  diocesan  seminaries,  and  their  example,  no 
doubt,  greatly  influenced  the  later  seminary  movement  in 

Prance. 

In  Germany  the  seminary  movement,  as  we  may  call 
it,  proceeded  more  slowly,  doubtless  being  retarded  by 
the  religious  wars  which  afflicted  the  country  at  that  time. 
The  first  seminaries  we  learn  of  were  rudimentary,  the 
earliest  being  established  at  Eichstaedt  (1564),  Wiirz- 
burg  (1570),  and  Breslau  (1571).  Their  professorial 
staff  was  limited  and  their  disciplinary  arrangements 
more  or  less  experimental.  However,  here,  as  elsewhere, 
the  organization  of  institutions  followed,  in  the  main,  the 
plan  of  the  Collegium  Germanicum,  founded  by  St.  Ig- 
natius of  Loyola  at  Koine  in  1552  for  German  clerical 
students.  We  must  not  forget  to  state  that  in  Germany, 
too,  a  society  of  secular  priests  had  a  great  share  in  the 
foundation  and  conduct  of  seminaries. 

The  first  attempt  at  carrying  out  in  Spain,  though  im- 
perfectly, the  Tridentine  Decree  on  seminaries  was  not 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      27 

made  until  1570.  In  France  we  hear  of  seminary  proj- 
ects, first  of  all,  at  the  assembly  of  the  clergy  in  the  year 
1579,  and  later  at  various  diocesan  synods.  Whether 
these  resolutions  brought  any  immediate  practical  fruit  is 
not  so  clear.  Only  so  much  is  certain,  that  the  founda- 
tion of  seminaries  greatly  depended  on  the  assistance  of 
the  government. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  in  France  that  we  meet,  as 
early  as  1584,  with  a  society  of  secular  priests  organized 
Hke  the  Oblates  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  and  especially 
devoted  to  clerical  instruction.  This  was  the  Congrega- 
tion of  Adrian  Bourdoise,  which  had  charge  of  the  semi- 
naries of  Paris,  Beauvais,  and  Chartres  between  1584 
and  1655.  The  Priests  of  the  Mission,  better  known  to 
us  as  Lazarists,  were  also  approved  by  the  Popes  as  a 
society  of  secular  priests,  one  of  whose  objects  was  the 
government  of  clerical  seminaries,  and  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul,  their  founder,  laid  down  special  rules  which  were 
to  guide  them  in  governing  their  institutions.  The  foun- 
dation period  of  the  Lazarists  extended  from  1632  to 
1658.  In  1611-1613  Cardinal  de  Berulle  established  in 
France  a  modified  form  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Ora- 
tory founded  by  St.  Philip  Neri  in  1583.  While  St. 
Philip's  Society,  which,  like  the  Oblates  of  St.  Charles, 
was  a  society  of  secular  priests,  stood  aloof  from  the  semi- 
nary problem,  the  Oratory  of  Cardinal  de  Berulle  devoted 
itself  vigorously  to  the  work  of  higher  education,  espe- 
cially with  the  view  of  improving  the  education  of  the 
clergy.  Cardinal  de  Berulle  died  in  1629,  at  which  time 
the  Oratorians  had  made  great  progress  in  France,  though 
they  seem  to  have  had  little  to  do  with  seminary  educa- 
tion. 

Toward  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Jean 
Jacques  Olier  (1608-1657),  a  zealous  priest  who,  among 
other  reforms,  had  tried  to  put  an  end  to  duelling,  had  his 


28  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

attention  drawn  to  the  crying  need  of  institutions  for  the 
education  of  the  secular  clergy  in  France.  He  was  a 
close  friend  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  who  was  no  less  con- 
vinced than  the  Abbe  Olier  that  immediate  steps  should 
be  taken  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  French  clergy  in  this 
direction  and  to  carry  out  more  perfectly  the  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Trent.  In  fact,  as  is  evident,  the  idea 
of  meeting  this  pressing  want  was  in  the  air  in  France 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  leading  to 
the  foundation  of  the  Vincentian  Congregation  by  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  and  of  the  Sulpician  Society,  in  1642, 
by  the  Abbe  Olief. 

The  missionary  experiences  of  M.  Olier  and  of  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  had  impressed  upon  them  the  necessity 
of  speedily  remedying  the  evils  which  had  sprung  from 
the  inadequate  training  of  the  clergy,  especially  of  the 
lower  and  country  clergy.  Both  had  for  a  number  of 
years  been  engaged  in  missionary  labors  in  many  different 
parts  of  France,  in  city  and  country.  Being  keen  observ- 
ers, endowed  with  sound  judgment,  as  well  as  men  of  ac- 
tion, they  set  to  work  without  delay.  In  1642  the  Abbe 
Olier  was  called  to  be  the  pastor  of  the  parish  of  St.  Sul- 
pice  at  Paris,  looked  upon  at  the  time  as  the  least  godly 
parish  in  the  metropolis,  and  M.  Olier  at  first  felt  disin- 
clined to  shoulder  the  burden.  But  becoming  convinced 
that  it  was  God's  will  that  he  should  undertake  the  work, 
he  did  so  with  vigor  and  wisdom.  Some  of  his  old  mis- 
sionary friends,  men  full  of  the  same  spirit  and  zeal  as 
the  pastor  himself  and  cherishing  the  same  ideas  regarding 
the  education  of  the  French  clergy,  joined  him  at  St.  Sul- 
pice,  ready  to  help  him  realize  his  schemes.  In  a  short 
time  the  parish  of  St.  Sulpice  was  reformed,  and  they 
were  prepared  to  inaugurate  the  work  of  training  the 
young  levites  for  the  Church  of  France. 

As  M.  Olier  was  eminently  a  practical  man,  his  new 


JEAN  JACQUES  OLIER, 
Founder  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      29 

position  as  pastor  of  St  Sulpice  was  utilized  by  him  to 
help  along  the  scheme  which  more  than  all  others  filled 
his  heart  and  mind.  He  made  the  education  of  his  semi- 
nary students  directly  practical  by  associating  them  with 
himself  in  the  care  of  the  parish.  Sunday  after  Sunday 
they  came  from  the  seminary  to  take  part,  according  to 
their  degree,  in  the  services  of  the  church,  familiarizing 
themselves  with  the  liturgy  and  lending  additional  gran- 
deur to  the  offices  of  the  Church.  They  catechised  the 
young  people  of  the  parish  so  that  they  became  well  in- 
structed in  the  commandments  of  God  and  the  Church. 
This  system  was  so  fruitful  in  its  results  that  it  was  con- 
tinued as  long  as  the  seminary  maintained  its  connection 
with  the  church  of  St.  Sulpice.  In  fact,  it  gave  to  the 
new  association  of  seminary  teachers  the  name  of  "So- 
ciety of  St.  Sulpice." 

The  new  Society  was  not  the  product  of  mere  theory. 
It  was  built  up  on  the  experience  which  the  founder  had 
gathered  in  his  missionary  days,  and  on  that  which  he 
was  gathering  as  the  practical  shepherd  of  souls  in  his  new 
parish.  Like  a  thoroughly  practical  man,  he  did  not  bind 
the  new  institute  by  hard  and  fast  lines  from  the  beginning, 
but  left  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  Society  to  be 
developed  by  the  test  of  time.  But  he  had  a  clear  con- 
ception of  what  he  meant  to  accomplish.  He  meant  to 
train  up  clergymen  thoroughly  fitted  to  fulfil  the  essen- 
tial duty  of  the  priest  of  Christ,  that  is  to  say,  to  sanctify 
and  make  like  unto  Christ  the  faithful  committed  to  his 
charge.  His  experience  as  a  missionary  had  proved  that 
this  meant  the  instruction  of  the  faithful  in  their  duties 
in  the  law  of  God,  but  it  meant  also  the  training  of  their 
wills  to  carry  out  Christ's  precepts. 

This  training  of  the  will,  he  was  convinced,  could  best 
be  done  by  means  of  example,  and  therefore  the  young 
levites  entrusted  to  his  care  must  first  of  all  sanctify  them- 


30  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

selves,  and  in  order  that  their  teachers  might  aid  them  to 
achieve  this,  they,  too,  must  be  an  example  to  their  pupils. 
Consequently,  the  seminary  priests  must  share  the  lives 
of  their  pupils,  pray  with  them,  eat  with  them,  study  with 
them,  in  short,  live  with  them.  They  were  to  be,  as  it 
were,  the  elder  brothers  of  the  students,  sharing  their  toils, 
partaking  of  their  joys,  and  obedient  to  the  same  rules. 
In  all  but  the  purely  intellectual  domain  they  were  to 
teach  by  example  more  than  by  word  of  mouth.  They 
were  to  be  the  friends  and  brothers  rather  than  the  su- 
perintendents and  watchmen  of  the  young  levites  en- 
trusted to  their  care,  for  their  own  idealistic  training 
and  their  characters  as  gentlemen  made  them  unfit  to  act 
any  other  part.  Hence  their  dealings  with  their  pro- 
teges were  at  all  times  open  and  frank.  They  studied 
the  characters  of  their  students  for  the  purpose  of  better 
fitting  them  for  the  deeply  responsible  work  of  guiding 
their  future  flocks,  advising  them  and  pointing  out  short- 
comings, nor  did  they  shrink  from  suggesting  withdrawal 
from  the  seminary  if  they  saw  that  the  candidate  for  the 
priesthood  was  deficient  in  earnestness,  talent,  or  virtue. 
Their  recommendation  of  a  student  to  the  bishop  for  or- 
dination was  not  a  mere  act  of  routine,  being  always  the 
result  of  careful  personal  observation  and  charitable  con- 
sideration, the  charity  extending  not  only  to  the  candidate, 
but  also  to  the  congregations  destined  in  the  course  of 
time  to  be  entrusted  to  his  government  and  guidance.  It 
follows  from  this  that  the  true  Sulpician  must  spend  all 
his  time  with  or  for  his  pupils,  that  he  must  cut  himself 
off  from  the  world,  that  he  must  daily  strive  to  fit  him- 
self better  for  the  lofty  task  assigned  to  him  by  God,  that 
he  must  have  no  ambition  except  to  develop  his  young 
charges  into  true  and  loyal  servants  of  God's  people. 
Hence,  except  in  very  unusual  circumstances,  a  Sulpician 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ST.  SULFICE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES   31 

once  is  a  Sulpician  for  life,  and  neither  mitres  nor  ben- 
efices have  any  attraction  for  him. 

Holding  that  the  spiritual  growth  of  the  young  clerics 
should  be  the  main  and  only  end  of  the  Sulpician  teacher, 
M.  Olier  felt  satisfied  that  when  a  Sulpician  begins  to 
doubt  his  vocation  his  usefulness  as  a  trainer  of  priests 
is  at  an  end.  He  made  it  a  rule,  therefore,  that  any  gen- 
tleman of  St.  Sulpice  might  withdraw  according  to  the 
dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  and  that,  therefore,  the 
members  of  the  Society  should  make  no  vows.  He  felt 
convinced  that  men  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  these  rules 
and  guiding  their  lives  by  them  would  find  little  use  for 
money  or  property,  except  for  benevolent  purposes. 
Therefore,  he  did  not  require  his  brethren  to  take  the  vow 
of  poverty.  In  short,  they  were  secular  priests  like  other 
secular  priests,  except  that  Sulpicians,  while  they  re- 
mained Sulpicians,  lived  in  community  and  bound  them- 
selves to  obey  their  superiors.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Sulpician  superior  regularly  couched  his  orders  in  the 
form  of  requests,  and  we  have  the  word  of  the  historians 
of  St.  Sulpice  that  these  requests  were  complied  with  as 
if  they  were  sacred  commands.  In  fact,  notwithstanding 
the  freedom  allowed  to  the  Sulpician  to  withdraw  when 
he  pleases,  he  rarely  makes  use  of  this  right.  Even  dur- 
ing the  terrors  of  the  French  Revolution,  when  out  of 
some  one  hundred  and  twenty  Sulpicians  eighteen  fell 
victims  to  the  gallows  or  the  guillotine,  and  many  more 
sturdily  showed  their  loyalty  before  the  revolutionary 
tribunal,  no  Sulpicians  took  the  constitutional  oath  of  the 
clergy,  nor  did  any  of  them  give  up  their  sacred  duties  to 
become  men  of  the  world.  After  the  restoration,  the  scat- 
tered members  of  the  Society,  with  almost  no  exceptions, 
resumed  their  old  work  in  the  seminaries. 

Another  cardinal  principle  laid  down  by  Olier  and  rig- 
idly adhered  to  by  his  successors  was  that  the  gentlemen 


32  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

of  St.  Sulpice  must  have  one  and  only  one  aim  as  a  so- 
ciety. St.  Sulpice  was  founded  to  train  priests,  and  for 
no  other  purpose.  If  a  gentleman  who  had  joined  the  So- 
ciety was  found  to  be  possessed  of  unusual  oratorical  gifts, 
so  that  he  might  render  more  efficient  service  to  God  and 
the  Church  as  an  orator  than  as  a  seminary  professor,  he 
was  entirely  free  to  withdraw,  and  in  some  cases  he  was 
actually  advised  to  do  so.  Bishop  Fournier  of  Mont- 
pellier,  in  whose  arms  M.  Emery  died,  was  advised  by 
the  latter  to  become  a  secular  priest  because  of  his  great 
eloquence.  But  the  Fathers  of  St.  Sulpice  were  almost 
universally  convinced  that  as  seminary  professors,  as 
trainers  of  the  men  destined  to  be  the  shepherds  of  God's 
flock,  they  were  able  to  do  more  and  greater  and  more 
far-reaching  good  than  they  could  do  as  bishops  and  prel- 
ates, though  they  revered  the  episcopate  as  the  perfection 
of  the  priesthood. 

Of  course,  a  body  of  men  exclusively  devoted  to  one 
purpose,  the  training  of  the  clergy,  could  not  be  a  numer- 
ous body,  especially  as  M.  Olier  had  no  intention  to  send 
his  brethren  outside  of  France  and  its  colonies.  Indeed, 
the  United  States,  with  the  exception  of  Canada,  is  the 
only  country  outside  of  France  where  the  Society  of  St. 
Sulpice  has  taken  charge  of  seminaries.  Moreover,  the 
Council  of  Trent  placed  the  organization  and  control  of 
clerical  seminaries  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  bishops. 
If,  therefore,  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  had  charge  of 
a  diocesan  seminary,  it  was  in  accordance  with  a  contract 
or  agreement  made  with  the  bishop,  and  such  an  agree- 
ment, of  course,  was  not  necessarily  perpetual.  The  nat- 
ural result  was  that  the  Sulpicians  at  no  time  since  their 
foundation  have  controlled  all  or  even  the  majority  of  the 
French  seminaries.  In  1Y91,  when  the  Society  was  dis- 
persed by  the  French  Eevolution,  it  numbered  sixteen  the- 
ological seminaries  and  ten  other  houses  for  clerical  edu- 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 


33 


cation  in  France.1  In  1904,  when  the  third  French  Be- 
public  dissolved  the  Sulpician  seminaries,  they  numbered 
about  thirty.  It  may  not  be  possible  to  gather  absolutely 
accurate  statistics  on  this  point,  but  it  is  safe  to  assume 
that  the  Society  never  counted  more  than  430  members. 
Indeed,  the  earlier  superiors-general  seem  to  have  limited 
the  membership  to  seventy-two,  to  which  must  be  added 
the  superior  and  his  twelve  assistants. 

We  must  draw  attention  to  another  point.  The  life  of 
a  Sulpician  was  designedly  a  quiet,  retired  life,  without 
worldly  interests,  craving  for  no  wealth  or  worldly  for- 
tune, not  aiming  at  fame  or  eclat;  it  did  not  encourage 
the  publication  of  theological  or  other  literary  works  by 
its  professors.  Indeed,  many  manuscripts,  containing  val- 
uable treatises  on  the  various  provinces  of  theology,  writ- 
ten by  men  respected  as  eminent  scholars  and  teachers  in 
their  day,  are  still  preserved  in  the  archives  of  St.  Sul- 
pice.  It  may  be  correctly  stated  that  the  publications  of 
the  Sulpicians  are  not  a  fair  standard  of  their  learning 
and  that  this  is  due  to  the  love  of  retirement  which  is 
the  characteristic  of  the  Society. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  Society  is  its  disinterested- 
ness. The  houses  of  the  Sulpicians  are  often  theirs  only 
in  virtue  of  their  agreement  with  the  diocesan  bishops. 
They  are,  therefore,  partly  under  episcopal  control.  Their 
property  as  a  corporation  is  owned  by  them  less  abso- 
lutely. Their  restriction  to  one  purpose  is  a  limit  to  their 
extension  and  to  acquisition  of  property.  While  the  in- 
dividual Sulpician  may  own  property  and  sometimes  when 
dying  devises  it  to  his  Society,  the  order,  as  a  whole, 
has  never  become  wealthy.  It  has  been  a  principle  with 
the  Sulpicians,  in  the  case  of  bequests,  never  to  enforce 
these  bequests  by  law-suits,  even  if  the  testator  was  a 
member  of  the  order.  The  Sulpicians  have  readily  sur- 

»  Gosselin,  op.  cit.,  vol.  1,  p.  451. 


34  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

rendered  the  direction  of  congregations  founded  by  them, 
such  as  that  of  the  Colored  Oblate  Sisters  of  Providence 
and  the  Seton  Sisters  of  Charity,  and  have  given  up 
colleges,  like  Mt.  St.  Mary's  College  and  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege, Baltimore,  because  to  maintain  them  was  some- 
what out  of  harmony  with  their  principles. 

Readers  of  Sulpician  history  must  be  struck  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  these  gentlemen  in  their  histories  and  bi- 
ographies of  the  Society  are  usually  called  directors,  not 
professors.  Still,  we  should  not  be  surprised  thereat. 
The  professor  suggests  the  man  of  learning,  the  director 
the  guide.  Now,  highly  as  M.  Olier  and  his  successors 
valued  learning,  they  did  not  speak  of  teaching  the  young 
clerics,  but  of  forming  them,  i.e.,  of  moulding  their  char- 
acter, of  making  them  good,  holy,  wise  men,  capable  of 
spreading  holiness  and  justice  in  the  world  which  was  to 
be  the  scene  of  their  labors.  The  word  "director,"  there- 
fore, was  eminently  suitable  for  the  men  that  formed  the 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  because  it  emphasized  the  side  of 
their  work  on  which  they  laid  the  greatest  stress. 

We  have  endeavored  in  this  brief  sketch  to  bring  out 
the  most  salient  features  in  the  spirit  and  the  life  of  the 
Society  which  was  destined,  under  the  direction  of  Bishop 
Carroll  and  the  Abbe  Emery,  to  play  such  an  important 
role  in  laying  the  foundations  of  Catholicism  in  the 
United  States.  The  principles  and  rules  which  we  have 
set  forth  above  as  the  guiding  ideas  of  M.  Olier's  Society 
did  not,  as  Minerva  leaped  full-armed  from  Jupiter's 
head,  come  as  a  complete  and  ripe  system  from  his  pen. 
They  were  rather  the  accumulation  of  wisdom  on  the 
basis  of  experience.  Olier  became  pastor  of  St.  Sulpice 
in  1642 ;  ill  health  forced  him  to  leave  his  dearly  beloved 
seminary  and  church  in  1647,  only  five  years  after  he 
began  to  realize  the  project  of  his  Society  and  ten  years 
before  his  death.  He  never  drafted  a  constitution  or  by- 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      35 

laws  for  the  organization  that  he  was  creating.  He  him- 
self was  the  living  constitution  and  the  living  rule  of  the 
Society.  His  friends,  de  Bretonvilliers  and  Tronson, 
were  the  depositaries  of  his  thoughts,  the  confidants  of 
his  views,  and  the  witnesses  of  his  practice. 

When,  therefore,  Home,  through  Cardinal  Chigi,  its 
nuncio  in  France,  approved  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  on 
August  3,  1664,  and  when  the  Parliament  of  Paris  gave 
them  its  sanction  in  1708,  and  a  constitution  and  rules 
had  to  be  submitted  to  these  authorities,  it  was  M.  de 
Bretonvilliers,  the  first,  and  M.  Lechassier,  the  third 
successor  of  M.  Olier,  who  drew  up  the  required  docu- 
ments. It  is  touching  to  read  in  the  records  of  MM.  de 
Bretonvilliers  and  Tronson,  his  successor,  the  evidence  of 
the  veneration  and  the  faith  they  had  in  their  beloved 
master  and  friend.  Olier's  practices  became  rules  and 
Otter's  suggestions,  principles,  and  all  this  without  any 
superstition,  for  Olier  was  indeed  a  wonderful  fountain 
of  sanctity  and  wisdom,  which  he  distilled  into  his  friends 
and  associates,  and  they  into  their  successors. 

We  can  now  picture  their  disciples  before  our  mind's 
eye,  men  devoted  to  Christ's  cause  and  that  of  His  Church, 
pious  and  devout,  with  a  special  devotion  to  the  Mother 
of  God,  modest,  disinterested,  retiring,  straightforward, 
and  simple,  without  ambition  and  without  guile ;  men  of 
learning,  too,  life-long  students,  working  not  for  reputa- 
tion, not  for  vanity,  not  for  wealth,  but  for  the  Kingdom 
of  God. 

When  we  come  to  the  further  history  of  the  Society  of 
St  Sulpice,  it  will  not  long  detain  us.  In  the  epigram- 
matic sense  of  the  current  phrase,  we  may  say  that  it  has 
no  past.  No  scandals,  nay,  not  even  accusations,  mar  the 
simplicity  and  purity  of  its  records.  Its  soul  was  charity 
and  its  works  were  free  from  bitterness.  Love  of  God 
and  His  truth  were  their  animating  principle  and  the 


36  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

spirit  of  God,  which  sheds  the  sunlight  and  pours  out  the 
fertilizing  rain  even  on  his  erring  children,  filled  the 
hearts  of  its  sons.  They  were  true  and  devoted  sons  of 
St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  and  defended  the  rights  and 
authority  of  the  Koman  See.  But,  like  Pius  X,  they 
trusted  rather  to  the  all-prevailing  power  of  truth  and 
gentleness  than  to  the  efficiency  of  the  slashing,  contro- 
versial pen.  In  the  Jansenist  controversy  their  position 
was  never  doubtful,  but  they  were  proclaimers  of  the 
truth,  rather  than  assailants  of  the  champions  of  error. 
They  sought  to  put  down  heresy,  rather  than  the  heretic. 
They  were  Gallicans,  like  the  vast  majority  of  the  French 
bishops  and  clergy,  like  Bossuet  and  Fenelon,  but  much 
more  moderate  and  much  less  inclined  to  be  the  tools  of 
kings  and  parliaments. 

They  were  retiring,  studious,  and  conscientious  schol- 
ars, filling  the  hearts  and  the  minds  of  the  young  levites 
entrusted  to  them  with  their  own  spirit,  with  their  mod- 
esty, their  simplicity,  their  unworldliness,  their  love  of 
truth,  and  their  love  of  the  Church.    The  quality  of  their 
work  begot  the  admiration  of  the  wisest  and  the  best  of 
the  French  bishops,  who  had  entrusted  fully  sixteen  semi- 
naries to  them  before  the  wild  orgies  of  the  Eevolution 
played  havoc  with  all  that  was  lofty  and  holy.    Until  the 
rise  of  the  Terror,  they  had  worked  for  the  cause  of  the 
Church,  steadily  but  peacefully.     But  when  the  day  of 
death  and  danger  came,  when  the  most  pacific  of  men 
could  no  longer  profess  and  practice  the  religion  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace  without  exposing  themselves  to  denunci- 
ation and  death,  then  perhaps  the  boldest  champion  who 
stood  for  right  and  for  truth  was  the  diminutive  superior- 
general  of  the  Sulpicians,  the  Abbe  Emery,  who  quailed 
neither  before  Eobespierre  nor  before  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte. 

The  greatness  of  St.  Sulpice  shone  forth  most  brightly 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ST.  SULPICE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES   37 

in  the  days  of  adversity  and  trial.  The  story  of  St.  Sul- 
pice  is  essentially  a  story  of  peace  and  loyal  work;  and, 
therefore,  as  the  world's  history  is  the  story  of  war  and 
bloodshed  and  strife,  rather  than  of  tranquillity,  union,  and 
harmony,  as  its  heroes  are  the  wielders  of  the  sword  and 
the  destroyers  of  mankind,  rather  than  the  promoters  of 
charity  and  good-will,  so  history  has  not  found  in  the  Sul- 
picians  a  profitable  and  attractive  theme.  But  this  will 
not  prevent  the  thinking  man  who  can  delve  beneath  the 
surface  from  recognizing  their  merits  and  from  conclud- 
ing that  the  Society,  which  for  150  years  trained  the  best 
and  most  virtuous  elements  of  the  French  clergy,  which 
had  given  to  France  a  succession  of  holy  and  zealous  bish- 
ops, fifty-nine  of  whom  suffered  exile  in  the  day  of  trial, 
was  indeed  a  living  source  of  countless  blessings  to  the 
Church  of  France.  They  sought  not  the  glare  of  public- 
ity, but  their  modest,  humble,  persistent  works  were  reg- 
istered in  the  hearts  of  their  pupils  and  in  the  pages  of 
the  Book  of  Life. 

Before  we  take  up  again  the  story  of  the  Baltimore  Sul- 
picians,  we  must  not  fail  to  remark  that  almost  from  its 
foundation  the  Society  was  destined  to  extend  its  activity 
to  the  new  world,  and  even  to  the  territory  which  subse- 
quently became  the  United  States.  As  early  as  1636,  six 
years  before  taking  up  his  residence  at  St.  Sulpice,  M. 
Olier  had  become  interested  with  de  la  Dauversiere  in 
the  project  of  establishing  on  the  island  of  Montreal  a 
city  to  be  called  Ville-Marie.  This  town  was  to  be  the 
focus  of  missionary  activity,  embracing  in  its  purview 
all  the  Indian  tribes  within  reach  of  Montreal,  for  the 
island  of  Montreal  had  for  many  years  served  as  a  tryst- 
ing-place  for  the  Indian  and  French  traders.  After  vari- 
ous delays  and  negotiations,  in  1641  the  new  enterprise 
was  launched,  under  the  direction  of  the  knightly  and 
pious  de  Maisonneuve  and  the  devoted  Mile.  Mance,  the 


38  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Jesuit  Father  Vimont  celebrating  the  first  Mass  in  the 
new  colony.    In  1657,  until  which  time  the  settlement  re- 
mained in  the  charge  of  the  Jesuits,  the  managers  offered 
the  spiritual  direction  of  the  island  to  the  Sulpicians. 
The  first  superior  was  M.  de  Queylus  de  Montmorency. 
He  and  his  companions,  of  course,  at  first  acted  as  mis- 
sionaries, and  in  1661  two  of  them  were  massacred  by  the 
Iroquois.    These  missions  before  long  brought  them  to  dis- 
tricts bordering  on  what  is  now  the  United  States,  or  with- 
in that  territory.  As  early  as  1668,  M.  de  Queylus  sent  two 
of  his  priests,  MM.  Trouve  and  de  Salignac-Fenelon,  to 
found  a  mission  at  Kent  Bay  on  Lake  Ontario.     M.  de 
Salignac-Fenelon,  by  the  way,  was  a  younger  brother  of 
the  great  Archbishop  of  Cambrai,  who  had  himself  been 
a  pupil  of  the  Sulpicians.     M.  de  Salignac-Fenelon  and 
his  confrere  extended  their  missionary  labors  as  far  as 
Niagara  Falls,  and  were  thus  probably  the  first  Sulpicians 
who  set  foot  on  the  territory  of  the  great  American  Re- 
public.    It  is  interesting  to  learn  that  even  now  one  of 
the  feeders  of  Lake  Ontario  bears  the  name  of  Fenelon, 
after  this  enterprising  missionary.     Among  the  settle- 
ments shortly  afterwards  founded  by  the  Sulpicians,  we 
must  not  forget  that  which  has  since  become  the  city  of 
Ogdensburg  and  which  is  certainly  within  the  limits  of 
the  American  Union.    About  the  same  time,  the  Sulpician 
Fathers  gathered  about  them  in  settlements  reserved  for 
them  great  numbers  of  Eedskins,  coming  from  what  is 
now  United  States  territory.    We  readily  recognize  among 
them  tribes  like  the  Hurons,  Iroquois,  Algonquins,  Nipis- 
sings,    Sioux,    Miamis,    and   Flatheads,    whose   hunting 
grounds  certainly  extended  into  our  territory. 

We  cannot,  of  course,  give  an  account  of  all  the  Sul- 
pician missions  in  eastern  Canada  which  did  not  come 
in  contact  with  the  country  that  now  belongs  to  the  United 
States.  We  must  not,  however,  fail  to  draw  attention  to 


BEGINNINGS    OF   ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      39 

the  Sulpician  missionaries  who  brought  the  Gospel  to  the 
Micmacs  and  other  Indian  tribes  in  the  north  of  Maine. 
They  and  their  Jesuit  confreres  so  strongly  imbued  these 
kindly  Redskins  with  Christian  love  and  faith  that  many 
years  after  the  missions  were  given  up  and  the  neophytes 
left  to  themselves  they  implored  Bishop  Carroll  to  send 
them  again  their  beloved  Black  Robes. 

In  the  west,  we  must  draw  attention  to  the  part  which 
Sulpicians  and  their  scholars  took  in  the  exploration  of 
the  Mississippi  valley.  The  name  of  Rene-Robert  Cave- 
lier,  Sieur  de  La  Salle,  is  a  household  word  in  American 
history  as  that  of  the  man  who  first  descended  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  its  delta.  Subsequently,  he  undertook  to  ex- 
plore the  river,  starting  from  the  south,  and  on  this  occa- 
sion M.  Tronson,  the  third  superior-general  of  St  Sul- 
pice,  detailed  to  accompany  him  de  La  Salle's  brother, 
the  Abbe  Jean  Cavelier  de  La  Salle,  and  his  two  nephews, 
one  a  Sulpician  belonging  to  the  Montreal  seminary,  the 
other  an  inmate  of  the  seminary  of  St.  Sulpice,  Paris. 
M.  Tronson  had  intended  to  found  a  mission  in  Louisiana, 
but  the  murder  of  de  La  Salle  in  1687  forced  him  to  give 
up  the  project. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice 
had  not  been  strangers  to  the  soil  of  the  United  States 
when  in  1791  they  settled  in  Baltimore.  When,  on  Oc- 
tober 3d  of  that  year,  the  regular  academic  exercises  were 
opened,  the  seminary  had  a  full  staff  of  professors,  but 
only  the  students  that  they  had  brought  with  them  from 
Trance.  Father  Nagot  and  his  colleagues,  strictly  follow- 
ing the  instructions  of  M.  Emery,  carried  out  the  rules, 
the  religious  exercises,  and  the  course  of  studies  so  fa- 
miliar to  them  in  the  seminary  of  St.  Sulpice  at  Paris. 
They  rose  and  retired  at  the  same  hours,  they  took  their 
meals  with  the  students  at  the  same  hours,  they  practiced 
the  same  ascetic  virtues  and  were  animated  by  the  same 


40  THE    SULPICIANS   IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

spirit  of  piety  and  devotion.     So  far  as  the  spirit,  man- 
agement, and  direction  of  the  seminary  were  concerned, 
everything  went  without  flaw  and  promised  the  best  re- 
sult for  the  future.    What  Bishop  Carroll  thought  of  the 
conduct  of  his  seminary,  which  he  so  justly  considered 
to  be  one  of  the  foundation  stones  of  the  Church  in  the 
United  States,  is  clearly  and  strongly  expressed  in  the  let- 
ter quoted  at  the  end  of  our  first  chapter.     And  yet  it 
soon  became  evident  that  sore  days  of  trial  awaited  the 
new  institution.     A  seminary  is  made  up  not  only  of 
professors,  but  also  of  students,  and  the  students  are  just 
as  necessary  for  its  success  as  the  faculty.     In  the  stu- 
dents, or  rather  in  the  absence  of  students,  lay  the  dan- 
ger   threatening    the    seminary    of    Baltimore.      Father 
Nagot  began  the  spiritual  retreat  for  the  seminarians  on 
December  10,  1791,  and  on  December  15  he  dedicated 
the  chapel.     But  the  retreat  was  followed  only  by  the 
students  brought  by  him  from  France,  and  perhaps  by 
only  a  part  of  them,  for  the  name  of  neither  Mr.  Cald- 
well  nor  of  Mr.  Tulloh,  who  accompanied  the  Sulpicians 
from  St.  Malo,  is  found  in  the  list  of  priests  ordained  at 
St.  Mary's  Seminary.     From  other  sources  no  students 
were  added  to  this  diminutive  roll.    When  in  the  follow- 
ing year  three  new  seminarians  appear,  we  still  find  no 
American;  two  were  Frenchmen,  M.  Barret  and  M.  Ste- 
phen Badin,  ordained  in  1Y93  as  the  first  American  priest. 
The  third  was  the  celebrated  Prince  Demetrius  Gallitzm, 
whose  father  was  the  Kussian  ambassador  at  The  Hague 
and  whose  mother  was  the  Princess  Gallitzin,  one  of  the 
foremost  members  of  the  Catholic  literary  circle  at  Mun- 
ster  in  Westphalia,  and  the  friend  of  Goethe  and  the  Schle- 
gels     He  came  to  the  United  States  under  the  name  of 
Smith,  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  conditions  in  the 
new  republic.    In  the  course  of  his  travels  he  felt  a  call 
to  the  priesthood,  was  received  into  the  Baltimore  semi- 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    8ULP1CE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      41 

nary,  and  ordained  in  1795.  He  even  joined  the  Society 
of  St.  Sulpice,  but  Bishop  Carroll  made  him  promise 
to  devote  himself  to  missionary  labor.  From  1795  to  the 
summer  of  1797  the  seminary  was  without  students.  In 
1797  M.  Montdesir  returned  from  Georgetown  College  to 
resume  his  theological  studies,  and  was  raised  to  the  priest- 
hood in  1798.  Mr.  Matthews  entered  the  seminary  in  1797, 
and  was  the  first  American-born  student  raised  to  the 
priesthood  (1800)  from  St.  Mary's. 

If  it  be  asked  why  candidates  for  the  priesthood  were 
not  forthcoming  at  Baltimore  during  the  last  years  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  an  answer. 
Owing  to  the  revolutionary  troubles  in  Europe,  young 
American  Catholics  could  not  pursue  their  preliminary 
studies  in  the  old  haunts  of  American  students  on  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe.  In  the  United  States,  it  is  true,  Bishop 
Carroll  had  founded  Georgetown  College  in  1789.  But 
the  short  time  which  had  elapsed  since  then  was  insuffi- 
cient to  provide  an  adequate  number  of  graduates  to  sup- 
ply the  needed  recruits  for  the  seminary.  In  fact,  when 
Georgetown  began  to  send  forth  graduates,  the  instruc- 
tors needed  for  the  college  itself  were  to  be  found  only  in 
the  ranks  of  its  alumni,  and  if  they  meant  to  study  the- 
ology they  did  this  at  the  college  itself,  at  the  same  time 
teaching  the  younger  students.  Of  course,  this  might 
have  been  foreseen.  But  the  zeal  and  enthusiasm  of 
Bishop  Carroll,  as  well  as  of  M.  Emery,  probably  led  them 
to  entertain  the  hope  that  students  would  appear  from 
other  sources. 

Meantime  M.  Emery  sent  new  supplies  of  professors 
to  Baltimore.  Thus  on  March  29,  1792,  in  company 
with  MM.  Badin  and  Barret,  came  Fathers  Chicoisneau, 
David,  and  Flaget,  and  on  the  24th  of  June  of  the  same 
year  arrived  Fathers  Marechal,  Richard,  and  Ciquard, 
while  Father  Dubourg,  afterward  bishop  of  New  Orleans, 


42  THE    SULPICIANS    Itf    THE    UNITED    STATES 

arrived  in  December,  1794,  and  joined  the  Society  of  St. 
Sulpice  in  1795.  Of  course,  M.  Emery  knew  full  well 
that  all  these  gentlemen  could  not  find  work  as  professors 
in  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  Indeed,  notwithstanding  his 
vigorous  insistence  that  the  training  of  theological  stu- 
dents was  the  sole  aim  of  his  Society,  he  had  assented  to 
the  plan  of  sending  Levadoux,  Richard,  and  Chicoisneau 
as  missionaries  to  the  west  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Here  there  were  many  French  and  French-Canadian  set- 
tlers who  were  sadly  in  want  of  pastoral  care  and  many 
Indians  who  had  been  converted  to  Christianity  by  the 
old  French  missionaries.  To  bring  them  the  needed  spir- 
itual aid,  he  thought,  would  be  continuing  the  old  Sulpi- 
cian  missions  of  Canada,  and  therefore  the  work  of  M. 
Olier.  To  Bishop  Carroll  this  work  was  most  welcome, 
for  hitherto  he  had  been  unable  to  do  much  for  the  evan- 
gelization of  these  western  districts.  Accordingly,  Fa- 
thers Levadoux  and  Flaget  set  out  without  delay  for 
their  new  sphere  of  action,  where  we  shall  leave  them  for 
the  present. 

But  the  other  Sulpicians,  even  the  original  companions 
of  Father  ISTagot,  sought  for  work  outside  of  the  seminary 
also.  Father  David  took  charge  of  three  missions,  resid- 
ing at  Sakia  in  lower  Maryland,  and  developed  a  wonder- 
ful activity,  giving  four  retreats  a  year  to  his  parishioners. 
Father  Gamier,  one  of  the  seminary  professors,  founded 
the  parish  of  St.  Patrick  in  the  lower  part  of  Baltimore 
called  Fell's  Point,  and  built  a  church  for  the  faithful. 
At  intervals,  in  conformity  with  Bishop  Carroll's  desires, 
he  turned  his  steps  to  districts  lying  farther  away  from 
Baltimore,  where  he  attended  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  the 
people.  Neither  fatigue  nor  the  terrors  of  the  yellow 
fever  hindered  him  in  the  performance  of  these  duties. 
Father  Tessier,  another  member  of  St.  Mary's  faculty, 
in  company  with  M.  Chicoisneau,  organized  a  little  par- 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      43 

ish  within  the  seminary  itself,  where  they  busied  them- 
selves especially  with  instructing  the  faithful.  Later  he 
became  interested  in  the  negroes,  and  together  with  Father 
Dubourg  established  a  small  negro  parish.  For  thirty-one 
years  he  taught  catechism  to  the  colored  children  of  the 
neighborhood,  also  devoting  much  time  to  the  promotion 
of  the  spiritual  interests  of  their  parents. 

Father  Ciquard  was  sent  by  Bishop  Carroll  to  the 
northeast  extremity  of  his  all-embracing  diocese,  to  the 
forests  of  Maine.  Here  the  remnants  of  the  Micmacs, 
who  had  received  the  Christian  faith,  in  part  at  least, 
from  Sulpician  missionaries,  and  had  preserved  it  for 
many  years  after  the  English  drove  out  the  French,  had 
sent  envoys  to  beg  Bishop  Carroll  to  send  them  some  Black 
Eobes.  The  bishop  sent  M.  Ciquard,  who  remained  with 
them  until  he  joined  his  brethren  at  Montreal. 

One  of  the  later  Sulpician  arrivals,  Father  Marechal, 
destined  to  be  the  second  successor  of  Bishop  Carroll,  spent 
some  time  among  the  old  Maryland  Catholics  of  St. 
Mary's  County.  In  1793  he  was  sent  to  Bohemia  Manor, 
Maryland.  He  served  this  mission  up  to  1799,  giving, 
moreover,  much  attention  to  the  temporal  administration 
of  the  Manor.  In  1802  he  was  sent  to  Georgetown  College, 
where  he  taught  philosophy. 

Father  Flaget  was  destined  by  M.  Emery  for  the  western 
missions  in  the  Illinois  country,  and  thither  he  went  shortly 
after  his  arrival.  Only  two  years  later,  however,  he  was  re- 
called from  the  west  by  Bishop  Carroll  and  named  vice- 
president  of  Georgetown  College,  where  he  worked  for 
two  years.  In  1799  we  find  him  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary 
and  in  1802-1808  his  name  appears  as  one  of  the  pro- 
fessors of  St.  Mary's  College. 

In  1795  Father  Nagot,  the  American  superior,  with 
the  consent  of  the  superior-general,  Father  Emery,  re- 
ceived into  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  Fr.  Dubourg,  who 


44  THE    STTLPICIANS   IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

later  on  became  bishop  of  New  Orleans.     This  energetic 
and  eloquent  clergyman  had  for  several  years  been  presi- 
dent of  a  boys'  seminary  at  Issy,  having  been  appointed 
to  the  position  by  M.  Nagot,  though  he  was  not  yet  a 
Sulpician.    In  1792,  when  so  many  of  the  Sulpicians  were 
imprisoned  and  slain  in  Paris,  M.  Dubourg  only  escaped 
disguised  as  a  fiddler;  in  1794  he  reached  America;  in 
1795,  being  a  man  of  great  executive  capacity  and  of  a 
very  attractive  manner,  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
Georgetown  College  by  Bishop  Carroll,  who  had  great  con- 
fidence in  him.     He  resigned  this  position  in  January, 
1799,  to  return  to  the  seminary.    However,  both  of  these 
gentlemen  about  this  time  went  to  Cuba  to  assist  another 
Sulpician  exile,  M.  Babad,  to  found  a  college  at  Havana. 
The  enterprise  proved  a  failure,  for  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment, suspecting  the  three  Sulpicians  because  they  were 
Frenchmen,  forbade  them  to  carry  on  their  educational 
work,  and  MM.  Dubourg  and  Babad  returned  to  Balti- 
more.    M.  Flaget  fell  ill  and  returned  in  July,  1801. 
They  had  made  a  very  favorable  impression  on  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Havana,  however,  and  brought  with  them  a  dozen 
Cuban  boys,  with  whom  M.  Dubourg  attempted  to  open  an 
academy.     Bishop  Carroll  looked  with  disfavor  on  this 
project,  as  it  appeared  to  him  likely  to  enter  into  competi- 
tion with  Georgetown  College.    But  to  enable  the  Sulpi- 
cians to  recover  their  outlay  on  the  new  institution,  he  per- 
mitted them  to  carry  on  the  scheme  for  two  years. 

Fathers  Levadoux  and  Eichard,  the  latter  of  whom 
arrived  in  the  United  States  on  June  24,  1792,  shortly 
afterward  turned  their  way  westward,  where  we  find  them 
first  at  Louisville  and  later  at  Vincennes,  Detroit,  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  and  other  places,  busily  engaged  in  the  French 
and  Indian  missions. 

Another  Sulpician,  M.  Dilhet,  was  also  sent  to  the  west, 
where  he  worked  in  conjunction  with  MM.  Levadoux  and 


REV.  DEMETRIUS  A.  GALLITZIX. 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      45 

Kichard.  After  his  ordination  in  1795,  Prince  Gallitzin, 
who  had  become  a  member  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice, 
immediately  began  his  activity  as  missionary  in  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  His  ability  and  zeal  were  a 
guarantee  of  his  success,  and  his  name  has  become  a  house- 
hold word  in  Pennsylvania  because  of  his  successful  estab- 
lishment of  the  colony  of  Loretto. 

Eleven  of  the  twelve  Sulpicians  who  during  the  last 
decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  sought  our  shores 
were  thus  either  wholly  or  partly  engaged  in  ministering 
to  the  wants  of  the  faithful  in  the  vastly  extended  new 
republic.  They  worked  as  missionaries  in  far  eastern 
Maine,  on  the  Great  Lakes,  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, in  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia;  they 
worked  as  missionaries  among  the  whites,  the  blacks,  and 
the  redskins,  as  evangelizers  among  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants ;  they  became  the  masters  of  the  American  youth 
in  Bishop  Carroll's  deeply  cherished  College  of  George- 
town. Even  the  venerable  superior,  Father  Nagot,  be- 
sides the  care  of  his  Society  and  his  seminary  at  Balti- 
more, assisted  the  American  bishop  in  the  work  of  the 
cathedral  and  took  part  in  the  earliest  synods  gathered  by 
him  in  the  capitol  of  the  American  Church.  But  Father 
Nagot,  and  still  more  the  head  of  the  Society,  M.  Emery, 
felt  that  they  were  drifting  away  from  the  primary  and 
chief  object  of  the  Sulpician  Society.  The  one  had  come 
to  the  new  world  and  the  other  sent  thither  his  brethren 
to  be  the  pioneers  in  the  work  of  the  clerical  education 
of  the  new  Church.  They  did  not  spare  effort,  or  money, 
or  prayers  to  found  St.  Mary's  Ecclesiastical  Seminary; 
they  had  dreamed  of  providing  the  Church  of  the  new 
republic  with  a  learned  and  zealous  national  clergy,  and 
now  the  halls  of  St.  Mary's  were  practically  vacant ;  and 
the  day  when  these  lifelong  trainers  and  teachers  of  wor- 
thy ecclesiastics  might  expect  efficiently  to  fulfil  their 


46  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

chosen  vocation  seeming  more  and  more  to  recede,  nat- 
urally filled  them  with  sad  misgivings  and  forebodings. 

As  the  years  advanced,  affairs  mended  in  France.  The 
advent  of  Napoleon  and  the  conclusion  of  the  Concordat 
again  opened  the  French  seminaries.  After  the  blood- 
shed and  desolation  of  the  Revolution,  the  want  of  an 
active,  youthful  and  expanding  French  clergy  cried  aloud 
for  the  reopening  and  creation  of  seminaries.  M.  Emery 
was  appealed  to  from  many  quarters  to  furnish  his  well- 
tried  and  experienced  ecclesiastical  educators  to  revive 
clerical  activities  in  his  native  country.  But  his  Society 
had  been  paralyzed  for  a  dozen  years,  and  few  recruits 
had  come  to  devote  themselves  to  the  absolutely  necessary 
seminary  work.  Naturally,  his  eyes  wandered  across  the 
great  western  main,  where  so  many  of  his  brethren  conse- 
crated to  clerical  education  were  working  hard,  but  work- 
ing for  ends  which,  however  laudable,  were  foreign  to  the 
primary  aims  of  the  Society.  All  these  considerations 
naturally  tended  to  make  him  feel  that  he  and  his  breth- 
ren were  practically  faithless  to  the  very  purpose  of  the 
Society  and  that  the  American  St.  Sulpice  was  betraying 
the  cause  of  ecclesiastical  education.  He  exchanged  views 
with  his  dear  old  lieutenant,  Fr.  Nagot,  and  that  gentle 
soul,  who  up  to  the  age  of  sixty  had  devoted  his  time  and 
his  entire  self  to  the  work  of  the  Sulpician  seminary, 
could  not  conceal  from  himself  that  the  American  Sulpi- 
cians,  whilst  strenuous  workers  in  the  vineyard  of  the 
Lord,  were  not  faithful  disciples  of  the  Reverend  M.  Olier. 

What  was  to  be  done  ?  M.  Emery  had  long  ago  become 
convinced  that  it  was  impossible  to  make  bricks  without 
straw;  in  other  words,  that  the  upper  seminary  presup- 
posed the  lower  seminary  or  its  equivalent.  He  had, 
therefore,  impressed  upon  the  Sulpicians  who  went  west- 
ward the  necessity  of  starting  ecclesiastical  academies  for 
boys  who  showed  signs  of  a  priestly  vocation.  There  are 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      4:7 

letters  extant  impressing  this  necessity  upon  Bishop 
Flaget  and  others.  The  old  superior-general,  notwith- 
standing his  occasional  disgust  and  horror  at  the  Revolu- 
tionary excesses  in  France,  always  remained  a  loyal 
Frenchman,  and  this  made  him  feel  that,  though  the  east- 
ern United  States  might  prove  but  barren  soil  for  priestly 
vocations,  the  settlements  of  the  French-Canadians  in  the 
west  would  turn  out  to  be  all  the  more  productive.  But 
the  facts  did  not  answer  his  expectations,  and  the  story 
of  New  Orleans  and  the  experiences  of  Father  Gibault 
demonstrate  that  there  was  no  violent  devotion  to  the 
Church  to  be  looked  for  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  failure  of  the  Sulpician  disciples  to  build  up  boys' 
seminaries  in  the  west  was  very  discouraging  to  M.  Emery 
and  M.  Nagot.  Nor  was  Bishop  Carroll's  check  to  M. 
Dubourg's  attempt  to  create  an  academy  at  Baltimore  by 
any  means  likely  to  ease  the  old  superior's  mind.  George- 
town furnished  no  students  to  St.  Mary's  Seminary;  the 
west  furnished  no  students,  and  now  the  Baltimore  Sul- 
picians  were  not  permitted  to  help  themselves.  Was  it 
not  evident  that  at  this  rate  the  St.  Sulpice  of  America 
could  no  longer  be  the  St.  Sulpice  of  M.  Olier,  that  the 
men  who  had  devoted  themselves  to  the  education  of  the 
priesthood  must  inevitably  become  missionaries  and  par- 
ish priests  ?  And  while  every  new  message  from  America 
impressed  this  sad  picture  of  failure  and  faithlessness 
more  deeply  on  his  mind,  the  bishops  of  France  from  day 
to  day  cried  more  loudly  for  the  fulfilment  of  M.  Oner's 
schemes  for  the  creation  of  new  seminaries  whither  his 
brethren  might  be  summoned  to  do  the  work  for  which 
they  had  become  Sulpicians. 

Of  course,  these  views  and  feelings  found  their  expres- 
sion in  M.  Emery's  correspondence  with  Bishop  Carroll 
and  with  Father  Nagot.  By  vocation  and  lifelong  prac- 
tice, M.  Nagot  was  a  Sulpician  and  sympathized  with 


48  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  feelings  and  schemes  of  his  superior.  On  the  other 
hand,  was  Bishop  Carroll  wanting  in  sympathy  with  M. 
Emery's  views?  He  had  been  too  good  a  Jesuit  not  to 
appreciate  loyalty  to  one's  order.  But  what  impressed 
the  American  prelate  more  than  the  necessities  of  the 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice  were  the  necessities  of  his  diocese, 
the  necessity  of  his  flock  spread  over  a  large  part  of  the 
continent.  What  was  he  to  do?  All  in  all,  he  had  but 
a  few  priests.  What  could  he  do  if  at  one  fell  swoop 
twelve  of  them  were  taken  away  from  him,  twelve  of  the 
most  efficient  helps  in  his  apostolic  work?  There  have 
come  down  to  us  four  letters,  two  from  the  Bishop  of 
Baltimore  to  M.  Emery,  and  two  from  the  Sulpician  su- 
perior to  Bishop  Carroll,  which  are  in  a  way  the  pathetic 
expression  of  the  mental  struggle  that  went  on  at  this 
time  in  these  equally  well  intentioned  and  zealous  men. 
We  cannot  do  better  than  to  present  them  to  our  readers 
now. 

M.  EMERY  TO  BISHOP  CARROLL,  AUGUST  9,  1800 

"I  had  advised  our  gentlemen  to  bring  up  in  their  house 
young  men  showing  a  disposition  to  become  priests  accord- 
ing to  the  wish  of  the  Council  of  Trent;  but  M.  Nagot 
has  informed  me  that  you  declined  to  authorize  this  policy 
because  you  feared  in  this  way  to  injure  the  interest  of 
Georgetown  College.  I  respect  your  intentions,  Mon- 
seigneur;  I  respect  your  wisdom,  and  at  this  distance 
from  Baltimore  it  does  not  become  me  to  judge  of  the 
reasons  which  led  you  to  object  to  our  plan;  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  what  outweighs  every  other  consideration  is 
the  creation  of  an  American  clergy ;  for  what  is  a  diocese 
whose  priests  are  all  strangers,  many  of  them  unknown, 
and  who  are  brought  there  by  circumstances  of  a  pass- 
ing nature? 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ST.    SULPICE    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES      49 

"M.  Nagot  tells  me  that  it  was  believed  possible  to  es- 
cape this  difficulty  by  educating  a  certain  number  of  young 
men  without  reference  to  the  priestly  vocation,  because 
it  is  hoped  to  pay  for  the  expenses  of  seminary  students 
from  the  profit  thus  made.  But  I  noticed  from  his  let- 
ters that  all  this  was  not  done  without  some  dissatisfaction 
on  your  part.  In  regard  to  this  I  have  the  honor  to  assure 
you,  Monseigneur,  I  shall  never  approve  any  undertak- 
ing of  our  gentlemen  which  meets  with  your  sincere  and 
constant  opposition.  Such  approval  on  my  side  would 
be  entirely  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  our  Society,  which 
can  do  nothing  except  in  harmony  with  the  bishops.  I 
have,  therefore,  not  approved  the  establishment  of  the 
academy  because  it  lacked  your  approval."  l 

BISHOP  CARROLL  TO  M.  EMERY,  JANUARY,  1801 

"I  am  not  astonished  that  you  have  been  pained  because 
the  seminary  founded  at  the  cost  of  so  many  sacrifices  on 
your  part  and  such  promising  hopes  has  been  without 
students  for  so  long  a  time.  Like  yourself,  I  am  thor- 
oughly persuaded  of  the  little  reliance  to  be  placed  on  the 
recruits  which  come  from  Europe,  so  to  say,  by  accident, 
and  of  the  great  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  priests 
brought  up  in  the  spirit  and  under  the  discipline  of  the 
seminary.  I  declare  to  you,  as  I  have  always  said  every- 
where, that  I  have  never  seen  or  known  anywhere  men 
better  able  by  their  character,  their  talents,  and  their 
virtues  to  train  ecclesiastics,  such  as  religion  requires  at 
present,  than  the  gentlemen  of  your  Society.  Therefore, 
I  believe  that  it  would  be  one  of  the  greatest  misfortunes 
that  could  happen  to  this  diocese  if  it  were  to  lose  them. 
I  have  these  feelings  so  strongly  impressed  on  my  mind 
that  I  was  frightened  when  I  heard  that  for  a  short 

*  GoBselin,  op.  oit.,  roL  11,  p.  102  sqq. 


50  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

time  you  had  intended  to  recall  them.  I  earnestly  beg 
of  you  to  give  up  this  thought  and  to  feel  sure  that  in 
the  end  they  will  fulfil  the  purpose  of  your  Society  and 
the  views  you  had  when  you  sent  them  here."  1 

BISHOP  CARROLL  TO  M.  EMERY,  SEPTEMBER,  1801 

"...  I  conjure  you  by  the  bowels  of  Our  Lord  not  to 
take  all  of  them  away  from  us,  and  if  it  is  necessary  for 
me  to  undergo  the  trial  of  losing  the  greater  number,  I 
beg  of  you  to  leave  us  at  least  a  seed,  which  may  yield 
fruit  in  the  season  decreed  by  the  Lord.  .  .  ."  2 

In  a  later  letter,  when  M.  Emery  continued  to  insist 
on  the  return  of  the  American  Sulpicians,  the  bishop  takes 
a  sharper  tone  and  complains  of  the  entire  suppression 
of  an  institution,  on  the  lasting  character  of  which  he  had 
always  counted,  and  declares  that  if  the  Sulpicians  go 
back  to  Europe  the  only  monument  they  will  leave  behind 
them  will  be  a  college.  In  reply  M.  Emery,  to  justify 
his  action,  wrote  the  following  letter: 

M.  EMERY  TO  BISHOP  CARROLL,  FEBRUARY  2,  1803 

"...  I  come  to  the  root  of  the  matter;  surely  in  the 
entire  course  of  the  French  Revolution  nothing  was  done 
similar  to  what  we  did  for  you  and  your  diocese.  A 
small  Society  like  ours,  in  fact,  the  smallest  Society  of 
all,  offers  to  establish  a  seminary  in  your  diocese;  it 
sends  you  quite  a  large  number  of  members;  it  even 
sends  you  seminarians  to  enable  you  to  start  the  seminary 
work  at  once ;  the  Society  sends  them  at  its  own  expense ; 
it  undertakes  to  support  these  members,  and,  in  fact,  has 
ever  since  then  supported  them ;  it  sacrifices  to  this  insti- 
tution the  greater  part  of  its  savings  and  gives  nearly 

1  Gosselin,  op.  cit.,  vol.  li,  p.  103  ff. 
'Gosselin,  op.  cit.,  vol.  11,  p.  104  sqq. 


BEGINNINGS    OP    ST.    SULPICE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES      51 

100,000  francs.  What  is  the  result  of  all  this  ?  At  the 
end  of  ten  years  things  stand  as  they  did  on  the  first  day. 
At  present  there  is  no  question  of  giving  up  the  Baltimore 
Seminary,  because  that  seminary,  in  truth,  has  never 
existed;  there  is  question  only  of  giving  up  the  project 
of  the  seminary.  From  time  to  time  promises  were  made 
that  students  should  be  sent  there;  we  were  made  to 
regard  this  as  a  grace  and  favor ;  but  the  students  did  not 
come,  and  difficulties  arose  where  we  should  have  least 
expected  them.  You  tell  me,  Monseigneur,  that  the 
Society  will  leave  behind  it  no  monument  except  a  college. 
I  hope  that  you  will  bear  in  mind  to  some  degree  all  the 
services  which  its  members  have  rendered  you  during  ten 
years.  If  there  is  question  of  complaining,  it  seems  to 
me  that  I  have  a  right  to  complain,  since  at  the  end  of 
a  ten  years'  stay,  and  after  many  promises,  we  have  done 
nothing  and  been  able  to  do  nothing  of  all  that  we  meant 
to  do  when  entering  your  diocese.  However,  I  am  very 
far  from  finding  fault  with  you;  we  know  that  you  have 
not  been  able  to  do  what  you  wished,  and  we  are  always 
grateful  to  you  for  all  the  kindness  you  have  shown  us."  1 
It  is  clear  from  this  correspondence  that  black  clouds 
had  arisen,  threatening  the  very  existence  of  St.  Mary's 
Seminary,  and  disaster  seemed  to  be  in  the  air.  What 
power  could  disperse  the  clouds  and  restore  serene  skies 
to  the  troubled  atmosphere  ?  The  Father  of  Christendom, 
Pope  Pius  VII,  proved  to  be  the  savior.  In  1804  the 
much-tried  pontiff  came  to  Paris  to  assist  at  Napoleon's 
coronation.  M.  Emery,  like  a  true  and  loyal  son,  took 
the  first  opportunity  to  call  upon  him,  and  he  discussed 
with  him  the  interests  of  the  Church  in  France  and 
America.  He  placed  before  him  his  scheme  of  infusing 
new  life  into  the  French  seminaries  by  recalling  the 
Sulpicians  he  had  sent  to  America  and  giving  up  St. 

*Gosselin,  "Vie  de  M.  Emery,"  vol.  11,  p.  104  ff. 


52  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Mary's  Seminary.  "My  son,"  said  the  venerable  pontiff, 
"let  it  stand — yes,  let  that  seminary  stand;  for  it  will 
bear  fruit  in  its  own  time.  To  recall  its  directors  in 
order  to  employ  them  here  in  other  seminaries  would  be 
to  rob  Peter  to  pay  Paul."  To  M.  Emery,  the  Pope's 
words  were  a  command  from  heaven.  St.  Mary's  Sem- 
inary stood  and  brought  forth  fruit  a  hundred-fold. 


CHAPTEE  III 
ST.  MART'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  M.  FRANCIS  CHARLES  NAGOT 

The  essential  purpose  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  as 
conceived  by  M.  Olier,  which  was  the  education  of  the 
secular  clergy,  and  the  management  of  clerical  seminaries, 
had  been  constantly  kept  in  view  during  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  this  was  the  chief  end,  as" 
M.  Emery  often  emphasized  in  his  letters,  for  which  he 
sent  his  Sulpician  colony  to  the  United  States.  We  have 
seen  how  this  scheme  originated,  how  it  was  favored, 
nay,  almost  dictated,  by  a  variety  of  circumstances  in 
France  and  in  the  United  States.  We  have  accompanied 
the  Sulpicians  on  their  voyage  to  Baltimore,  seen  them 
land,  and  with  prompt  action  establish  themselves  on  the 
very  spot  which  has  been  the  scene  of  their  devoted  labors 
to  this  day.  We  have  seen  M.  Emery's  original  colony 
increased  in  numbers  by  new  arrivals,  we  have  seen  most 
of  these  accessions  scattered  northward  and  westward  to 
work  as  missionaries  in  the  Lord's  vineyard.  But  though 
necessity  knows  no  law,  and  though  M.  Emery,  as  a 
practical  man,  was  ready  to  give  way  to  necessity,  still 
he  always  clung  with  unwavering  firmness  to  his  original 
plan  and  to  the  ideals  of  his  Society. 

It  is  time  for  us  to  revert  to  the  story  of  Bishop  Car- 
roll's and  M.  Emery's  initial  scheme  and  to  trace  the 
annals  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  as  the  new  institution 
was  called.  We  shall  not  conceal  from  our  readers  the 

53 


54  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

fact  that  the  early  records  of  this  institution,  destined  to 
be  in  the  truest  sense  the  nursery  of  the  American  Church, 
are  far  from  full.     Its  beginnings  were  very  small,  and 
its  childhood  necessarily  modest  and  quiet.     Its  growth, 
like  that  of  all  organisms  destined  to  thrive,  was  slow,  and 
its  development  stormy.    But  childhood  is  in  many  ways 
the  most  interesting  period  of  man's  life,  and  the  same 
is  true  of  the  life  of  institutions.     Therefore,  notwith- 
standing  its   insignificant  beginnings,   the  story   of   St. 
Mary's  Seminary  challenges  our  interest  from  its  infancy. 
The  professors  sent  by  M.  Emery  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  his  new  seminary  may  be  regarded  as  the  acorn  from 
which  the  great  oak  was  to  bud  and  grow.    To  enable  us, 
therefore,  to  watch  its  early  fortunes  nothing  will  be  more 
serviceable  than  to  study  the  men  placed  by  M.  Emery 
at  the  head  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.    He  had  been  care- 
ful and  wary  in  selecting  the  new  faculty,  having  observed 
the  natural  processes  of  life  too  closely  to  be  unaware  that 
a  young  institution  must  be  animated  by  young  life,  that 
youth  with  its  suppleness  can  weather  many  storms  to 
which  even  the  gnarled  oak  would  fall  a  victim.     So  he 
had  selected  as  his  two  principal  professors  men  in  the 
very  heyday  of  youth,  M.  Gamier,  twenty-nine  years  old, 
and  M.  Tessier,  thirty-three. 

But  as  vigor  without  wisdom  is  exposed  to  many 
reverses,  he  gave  them  as  guide  and  director  a  gentle  sage 
approaching  the  sixties,  a  man  tried  in  practical  life,  a 
good  organizer,  who  only  five  years  before  had  trans- 
formed the  lower  seminary  of  which  he  was  superior  from 
an  institution  with  four  classes  to  one  with  seven  classes, 
wholly  changing  its  scope  and  character.  This  was  M. 
Francis  Charles  ISTagot.  He  was  a  man  accustomed  to 
command,  but  sympathetic  and  prudent.  M.  Emery  had 
selected  him  to  conduct  his  negotiations  with  Bishop 
Carroll.  M.  Nagot  had  shown  himself  deserving  of  the 


M.  FRANCIS  CHARLES  NAGOT. 


ST.  MABY'S  SEMINABY,  1791-1810  55 

superior's  confidence,  for  his  mission  had  ended  in  suc- 
cess. Moreover,  M.  Nagot  had  more  than  ordinary  lit- 
erary talents,  for  Emery  had  chosen  him  to  write  a  life 
of  M.  Olier,  which  was  ready  for  publication  at  the  time 
Nagot  sailed  for  America.  The  troubles  of  the  French 
Revolution  put  off  its  publication  until  1818,  when  it  was 
printed  by  order  of  M.  Duclaux,  M.  Emery's  successor  as 
superior-general  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 

M.  Nagot  was  suggested  to  M.  Emery  as  the  right  man 
to  conduct  the  new  American  enterprise  to  a  successful 
issue,  not  only  by  his  past  successes,  but  also  because  he 
had  gained  the  good  will  of  Bishop  Carroll,  and  this  he 
retained  during  all  the  time  that  he  guided  the  destinies 
of  the  seminary.  He  was  a  kind-hearted  man,  a  gentle- 
man in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  of  attractive  manners 
and  a  sympathetic  heart.  M.  Emery's  letters  to  him 
during  his  imprisonment,  when  death  stared  him  in  the 
face,  show  how  close  were  the  ties  which  united  him  to 
Nagot  and  how  completely  he  trusted  him.  Nagot  de- 
served this  confidence,  for  while,  on  the  one  hand,  he  was 
sympathetically  responsive  to  his  friend's  wishes,  he  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  firm  enough  and  honest  enough  to 
speak  his  mind  when  he  thought  the  superior  wrong.  This 
was  the  case  when,  in  1797,  Nagot  wrote  to  M.  Emery 
disapproving  of  his  adhesion  to  the  oath  of  liberty  and 
equality  and  urged  him  to  withdraw  from  its  support. 
The  letter  stung  the  old  superior,  but  he  trusted  Nagot  to 
the  day  of  his  death.  Only  a  short  time  before  his  decease, 
in  1811,  when  his  Society's  existence  was  threatened  in 
France,  Emery  p^vposed  to  make  M.  Nagot  the  superior- 
general  of  St.  Sulpice  in  America,  including  Canada. 
The  tatter's  health  and  other  circumstances  forbade  the 
carrying  out  of  this  project.  Such  was  the  man  selected 
by  M.  Emery  to  be  the  first  head  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary, 
and  experience  proved  the  wisdom  of  his  choice. 


56  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

If  we  ask  what  was  the  sphere  of  M.  ISTagot's  activity 
in  the  new  seminary  it  would  be  misleading  to  say  that 
it  comprised  the  usual  duties  of  the  head  of  a  house  for 
clerical  education.  Of  course,  he  performed  all  the  duties 
of  this  position,  but  he  did  a  great  deal  more.  He  de- 
termined its  plans  and  its  future  policy,  infusing  into  it 
his  spirit,  which  was  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  M.  Olier  and 
to  M.  Emery  and  above  all  to  himself,  for  M.  Nagot  was 
not  only  the  agent  who  carried  out  the  aims  and  inten- 
tions of  his  superiors,  but  their  convinced  disciple,  their 
honest  incarnation.  He  carried  out  M.  Emery's  injunc- 
tions to  be  guided  by  the  views  of  M.  Olier  and  his  suc- 
cessors, not  merely  in  a  spirit  of  obedience,  but  because 
he  was  convinced  that  their  spirit  and  policy  were  expe- 
dient, rightful,  and  necessary. 

So  from  the  beginning  he  strove  to  make  St.  Mary's 
another  St.  Sulpice,  and  because  he  and  his  brethren  were 
imbued  with  its  spirit  he  succeeded  in  doing  so.  Not  that 
the  new  home  of  clerical  learning  was  a  slavish  imitation  of 
the  French  model.  This  would  not  have  been  in  the  spirit 
of  M.  Olier  and  M.  Emery.  But  what  was  vital  in  the 
principles,  in  the  practices,  and  in  the  spirit  of  the  older 
institution  was  faithfully  reproduced  in  the  new.  What 
these  practices  and  customs  were  will  appear  later  on. 
Meantime,  we  must  realize  at  least  some  of  the  extraordi- 
nary duties  laid  on  M.  Nagot  by  the  novelty  of  his 
position. 

To  begin  with,  he  was  obliged  to  acquire  a  new  lan- 
guage, and  while  this  was  equally  true  in  the  case  of  M. 
Tessier  and  M.  Gamier,  M.  Nagot's  task  was  far  more 
difficult.  An  old  gentleman  of  sixty  finds  it  much  harder 
to  acquire  a  new  language  than  a  man  of  thirty.  Again, 
all  the  Sulpicians  had  to  fit  themselves  for  their  new 
environment,  for  the  peculiar  needs  and  requirements 
of  the  young,  rapidly  rising  town  with  few  established 


ST.  MABY'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810  57 

traditions,  to  the  busy  life  of  men  for  whom  little  had 
been  done  by  their  ancestors  and  who  must  work  out  for 
themselves  nearly  all  that  constitutes  the  comforts  and 
adornments  of  life,  and  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the 
American  spirit  of  self-help,  which  was  the  natural  out- 
come of  the  juvenile  conditions  of  the  land. 

Nagot  was  a  Frenchman  cast  among  Americans,  a 
Frenchman  well  advanced  in  years  and  of  strong  con- 
servative tendencies,  but  at  the  same  time  a  very  intelli- 
gent French  gentleman.  How  much  that  meant  was 
shown  both  by  the  testimony  of  their  American  contem- 
poraries, who  treated  men  like  Cheverus,  Flaget,  and 
Dubois  not  only  with  respect,  but  even  with  reverence,  and 
also  by  Protestant  England,  who  did  herself  immortal 
honor  by  her  generous  treatment  of  the  exiled  clerical 
victims  of  the  French  Revolution. 

M.  Nagot's  spotless  character,  his  unselfish  devotion, 
his  earnest  desire  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  young 
American  Church,  and  his  whole-souled  sympathy  with 
the  moderate  freedom  of  the  American  Republic  soon 
gained  him  friends  and  influence.  He  was  beloved  and 
trusted  by  Bishop  Carroll.  His  native  moderation  and 
good  temper  and  his  prudent  diplomacy  made  him  an 
ideal  intermediary  between  the  Sulpician  superior-general 
and  the  Bishop  of  Baltimore.  He  was  always  ready  to 
be  of  service  to  the  latter  and  always  truly  loyal  to  the 
traditional  principles  of  the  former.  Along  with  his 
brethren  of  the  seminary  he  became  an  impressive  ele- 
ment of  the  Catholic  clergy.  Sunday  after  Sunday  their 
presence  at  the  principal  functions  added  to  the  distinc- 
tion and  solemnity  of  divine  service.  During  the  week, 
he  and  his  brethren  helped  the  bishop  and  his  regular 
assistants  in  every  possible  way. 

Gradually  the  Sulpician  Fathers,  having  sufficiently 
mastered  the  English  language,  aided  the  secular  clergy 


58  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

in  the  pulpit,  and  long  before  the  end  of  M.  Tessier's 
administration  in  1829,  we  see  that  gentleman  and  others 
of  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  able  to  grace  the  pulpit  even 
on  unusually  festive  occasions.  Of  course,  though  he 
had  M.  Tessier  as  econome  or  procurator  to  aid  him  in 
the  management  of  the  temporalities  of  the  house,  M. 
Nagot  naturally  felt  that  his  was  the  principal  responsi- 
bility for  the  economic  progress  of  the  seminary.  No 
doubt,  also,  whenever  there  were  student  classes  in  the 
house,  and  in  fact  at  all  times,  he  presided  at  the  com- 
munity exercises  and  inspired  his  brethren  with  his  own 
gentle  and  charitable  spirit  by  both  word  and  example. 
To  all  these  domestic  activities  were  joined,  if  not  a 
supervisory,  at  least  an  advisory  authority  over  the  other 
Sulpicians  who  were  serving  Bishop  Carroll  at  a  distance 
from  Baltimore,  either  as  missionaries  or  as  professors, 
nay,  even  as  presidents  in  Georgetown  College. 

M.  Nagot  was  a  man  of  many  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities, and  a  wise,  faithful,  and  industrious  servant  of 
his  Society,  his  bishop,  and  his  seminarians.  He  was  not 
a  young  man,  and  the  wear  and  tear  of  his  new  life  in 
Baltimore  could  not  fail  to  make  an  impression  on  his 
constitution.  As  early  as  1795,  when  he  had  just  entered 
the  sixties,  his  strength  began  to  fail.  A  stroke  of  apo- 
plexy, though  slight,  must  have  greatly  impaired  his 
vigor  and  power  of  work,  but  he  recovered  to  a  certain 
degree.  When  in  1804  he  was  recalled  to  Franc©  by  M. 
Emery  he  was  ready  to  obey,  though,  like  MM.  Gamier 
and  Tessier,  he  had  grown  fond  of  his  new  home  and  was 
the  trusted  and  devoted  friend  of  Bishop  Carroll.  How- 
ever, he  was  detained  by  illness,  apparently  connected 
with  the  paralytic  stroke  which  prostrated  him  ten  years 
before.  He  therefore  continued  his  work  at  Baltimore 
and  eventually  M.  Emery  changed  his  plans  and  resolved 
not  to  disturb  the  Sulpician  colony  at  Baltimore. 


ST.  MART'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810  59 

M.  Nagot  was  more  than  ever  determined  to  make  the 
seminary  a  success.  When  other  sources  of  supply  failed 
to  send  the  needed  students,  he  determined  to  provide 
them  himself.  He  was  now  some  seventy-three  years  old 
and  needed  rest  or  at  least  some  quiet  regular  employ- 
ment. But  the  fire  of  zeal  was  still  burning  in  the  veteran. 
He  left  Baltimore,  which  had  become  a  second  home  to 
him,  and  betook  himself  to  a  farm  located  at  Pigeon  Hill 
in  Pennsylvania,  where  he  founded  a  lower  seminary, 
which  was  attended  by  the  German  Catholic  boys  of 
the  neighborhood  who  showed  a  vocation  for  the  priest- 
hood. Their  numbers  did  not  go  beyond  ten  or  twelve, 
but  he  was  not  discouraged.  He  opened  his  school  and 
astructed  the  boys  in  the  elements  of  a  high  school  edu- 
cation. In  1809  M.  Emery  congratulated  him  on  his 
zeal  and  on  the  progress  of  his  undertaking.  But  at  the 
very  time  that  the  superior-general  wrote  his  letter  of 
congratulation,  Pigeon  Hill,  or  Friendly  Hall,  had  ceased 
to  exist  and  its  students  had  been  transferred  to  Mount 
St.  Mary's,  near  Emmitsburg. 

M.  Nagot  returned  to  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore, 
and  nursed  his  gradually  developing  institution  until  1810, 
when  after  his  sacerdotal  golden  jubilee  he  was  allowed  to 
resign.  This  was  about  the  time  that  M.  Emery  proposed 
to  make  the  venerable  priest,  now  in  his  seventy-seventh 
year,  the  general  superior  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  in 
America. 

M.  Nagot  was  an  industrious  writer.  He  was  not 
only  the  author  of  several  books  but  also  the  translator  of 
a  number  of  English  Catholic  classics  into  French.  A 
list  of  his  literary  works  is  subjoined.1 

The  youngest  and  perhaps  the  most  distinguished 
member  of  St.  Mary's  faculty  was  M.  Anthony  Gamier, 

1  "Recuell  de  Conversions  remarquables.  nouvellement  operees  en  quel- 
ques  Protestants,"  Paris,  1791 ;  a  "Life  of  M.  Oiler,"  1818.  He  translated 
Hay's  "Miracles"  and  "Devout  Christian."  Butler's  "Feasts  and  Fasts," 
Challoner's  "Catholic  Christian  Instructed,"  etc. 


60  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

who  at  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  Baltimore  was  twenty- 
nine  years  old.  He  had  been  for  several  years  professor 
of  dogma  at  Lyons,  and  presumably  M.  Emery  intended 
him  to  fill  the  same  chair  in  Baltimore.  He  ended  his 
career  as  superior-general  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 
M.  Gamier,  when  settled  at  St.  Mary's,  soon  accommo- 
dated himself  to  the  new  atmosphere.  He  was  a  gifted 
linguist  and  when,  twelve  years  later,  he  returned  to 
France,  he  spoke  and  wrote  the  English  language  well. 
He  soon  made  many  friends  at  Baltimore,  and  no  member 
of  his  theological  faculty  so  captivated  Bishop  Carroll 
as  M.  Gamier. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  latter  became  very  fond  of  his 
American  surroundings,  and  when  M.  Emery  recalled 
him  to  France,  in  1803,  he  honestly  confessed  that  to 
comply  with  the  call  was  to  tear  asunder  many  ties  and 
many  friendships  which  bound  him  to  his  new  home.  It 
was  not  without  a  struggle  that  he  returned  to  Paris,  but, 
like  his  brethren,  M.  Gamier  knew  no  compromise  in  a 
question  of  duty.  When  he  read  the  letter  of  recall  to 
Bishop  Carroll,  the  latter  suggested  that  he  might  with  a 
good  conscience  remain  at  Baltimore,  since  M.  Emery 
had  not  bidden  him  return  by  virtue  of  his  vow  of  obedi- 
ence. Gamier  made  haste  to  reply,  "But,  Monseigneur, 
the  Sulpicians  do  not  take  any  vows  and  our  superiors  do 
not  give  any  commands."  A  few  weeks  later  he  was  in 
Paris. 

During  the  years  (1791-1803)  that  M.  Gamier  spent 
at  St.  Mary's  his  professorial  work  was  not  very  absorb- 
ing. As  we  know,  students  were  lacking  at  the  seminary. 
But  Gamier  was  a  man  of  energy  and  hated  idleness.  He 
was  a  conscientious  professor  of  philosophy,  and  we  learn 
from  his  correspondence  that  he  was  an  active  worker  on 
the  missions.  The  very  year  after  his  arrival  at  Balti- 
more, the  bishop  entrusted  him  with  the  task  of  organizing 


ST.  MARY'S  SEMINABY,  1791-1810  61 

St.  Patrick's  congregation  at  Fell's  Point,  near  the  harbor 
of  Baltimore.  This  is  still  one  of  the  most  populous 
parishes  in  the  city.  Bishop  Carroll  was  so  much  pleased 
with  his  work  that  he  wished  to  take  him  away  from  the 
seminary  altogether.  But  to  this  M.  Emery  objected,  and 
M.  Gamier,  who  was  a  born  student,  devoted  himself  to 
his  studies. 

Besides  being  a  student  of  philosophy,  he  was  a  He- 
brew scholar,  and  much  of  his  leisure  time  at  Baltimore, 
we  may  infer,  was  given  to  perfecting  his  knowledge  of 
that  language.  After  his  return  to  Paris,  Napoleon's 
Minister  of  Worship  offered  him  the  Hebrew  professor- 
ship at  the  French  University,  but  Gamier  was  too  loyal 
a  Sulpician  to  be  tempted.  He  preferred  to  teach  Hebrew 
at  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice.  A  young  and  vigorous 
scholar  and  teacher  like  Gamier  was  an  ideal  man  for  a 
young  institution.  On  the  one  hand,  he  was  inspired  by 
love  of  learning  and  of  teaching;  on  the  other  hand,  he 
was  a  very  practical  man. 

On  his  return  to  France  he  became  M.  Emery's  most 
confidential  friend  and  his  constant  companion  at  St. 
Sulpice.  The  old  superior  understood  his  man  well, 
and  when  he  looked  about  for  one  to  whom  he  could  safely 
entrust  his  personal  fortune  he  chose  M.  Gamier,  and 
made  him  his  sole  heir.  He  could  not  have  made  a  better 
choice.  It  is  refreshing  to  read  the  executor's  account 
of  how  he  baffled  both  Napoleon's  Minister  of  Worship 
and  Cardinal  Maury,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  when  they 
sought  to  appropriate  the  furniture  of  St.  Sulpice  and 
the  property  at  Issy.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  he  is 
entitled  to  more  credit  for  his  shrewdness  or  for  his  firm- 
ness. At  all  events,  no  native  American  could  have  done 
better  than  this  attractive,  scholarly  French  Orientalist, 
who  earned  the  gratitude  of  many  generations  of  Sul- 
pician students  by  saving  for  them  their  attractive  home 


62  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

at  Issy.  Gamier  had  a  considerable  reputation  as  a 
humorist,  and  in  Sulpician  circles  in  Paris  many  an 
amusing  story  is  still  told  of  him. 

M.  Garnier's  departure  from  the  United  States  did  not 
extinguish  his  interest  in  the  American  Republic  and 
least  of  all  in  the  seminary  with  whose  early  fortunes  he 
had  been  so  closely  associated.  He  not  only  kept  up  his 
American  friendships,  but  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
progress  of  St.  Mary's,  and  induced  several  young  Sulpi- 
cians  to  come  to  Baltimore.  M.  Deluol  was  one  of  them. 
Two  years  after  his  election  as  superior-general  in  1827,  he 
sent  M.  Carriere  to  Baltimore  as  his  visitor,  or  special  rep- 
resentative, of  whose  activity  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
speak  hereafter. 

M.  John  Mary  Tessier  was  selected  by  M.  Emery  to 
be  the  third  member  of  the  new  Baltimore  faculty.  Like 
M.  Gamier,  he  remained  at  the  seminary  permanently, 
never  leaving  it  even  during  the  two  or  three  years  when 
no  students  were  there.  He  was  more  closely  associated 
with  its  history  than  either  M.  Nagot  or  M.  Gamier, 
for,  having  become  the  head  of  the  seminary  after  M. 
Nagot's  resignation  in  1810,  he  ruled  its  destinies  until 
1829.  He  was  the  treasurer  or  econome  of  the  institution, 
and  as  such  had  much  to  do  with  the  domestic  order  of 
the  house..  His  office,  of  course,  required  his  constant 
presence  at  Baltimore,  even  when  there  were  no  students 
at  the  seminary. 

His  work  included  classes  in  both  moral  and  dogmatic 
theology.  Whether  he  taught  any  other  branches,  such 
as  liturgy  or  sacred  music,  we  do  not  know,  though  it  is 
likely  enough,  and  we  may  with  much  probability  assign 
Sacred  Scripture  to  M.  Gamier.  But  M.  Tessier,  who 
was  in  his  thirty-fourth  year  when  he  came  to  the  United 
States,  was  no  more  inclined  to  be  a  drone  than  were  MM. 
Nagot  and  Gamier.  At  Bishop  Carroll's  request  and 


ST.  MAST'S  SEMINABY,  1791-1810  63 

with  the  approval  of  M.  Emery  he,  too,  devoted  much  of 
his  time  to  outside  work,  in  which  we  find  him  interested 
even  after  the  stagnation  period  of  St.  Mary's  ceased, 
and  he  had  assumed  the  direction  of  the  seminary  in 
succession  to  M.  Nagot. 

The  missionary  work  with  which  M.  Tessier's  name  is 
most  closely  connected,  and  which  in  fact  gives  him  a 
special  place  in  the  history  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
the  United  States,  was  the  care  of  the  colored  people  in 
Baltimore.  In  1801  there  were  in  that  city  a  large  num- 
ber of  colored  Catholics  who  had  come  thither  with  their 
French  masters  from  San  Domingo  and  other  West  In- 
dian isles.  Their  unfortunate  position  appealed  to  the 
good  Sulpician  professor.  He  devoted  himself  to  their 
interests,  made  them  a  part  of  the  congregation  at  St. 
Mary's  chapel  and  worked  for  them  heart  and  soul,  until 
finally  it  became  a  special  negro  parish.  Even  after  his 
elevation  to  the  presidency  of  the  seminary  he  continued 
to  be  deeply  interested  in  their  welfare.  How  greatly 
appreciated  was  his  activity  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary  in 
its  early  days  appears  from  the  fact  that  when  M.  Nagot 
resigned  as  superior  in  1810,  M.  Tessier  was  designated 
as  his  successor. 

Up  to  the  year  1803,  MM.  Nagot,  Gamier,  and  Tessier 
practically  formed  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary. 
At  intervals,  it  is  true,  other  Sulpician  Fathers  resided 
with  them  at  Baltimore.  Thus  we  find  that  M.  Levadoux 
was  at  St.  Mary's  from  1791-92,  and  again  from  1802-03. 
But  to  one  who  knows  the  customs  of  the  Sulpicians  it 
seems  more  likely  that  M.  Levadoux  was  a  temporary  guest 
in  the  house  than  a  definitely  appointed  professor. 

After  a  short  sojourn  in  Philadelphia  and  St.  Mary's 
County,  Md.,  M.  Marechal l  spent  five  years  at  Bohemia 
Manor.  Then  he  taught  theology  at  St.  Mary's  for  a  short 

1  According  to  the  table  In  the  "Memorial  Volume  of  the  Centenary  of 
St.  Mary's  Seminary  of  St.  Salplce,  Baltimore,  Md.,"  M.  Marechal  wa« 


64  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

time  (1799-1801),  and  from  1802  to  1803  he  taught  phil- 
osophy at  Georgetown.  We  may,  therefore,  safely  assume 
that  MM.  Nagot,  Gamier,  and  Tessier  constituted  the 
faculty  of  St.  Mary's  from  its  opening  until  1803,  the 
date  of  M.  Garnier's  return  to  Europe. 

Having  become  acquainted  with  the  governing  body  of 
the  new  seminary,  we  must  now  briefly  study  their  work, 
and  this  all  the  more  as  we  rarely  meet  elsewhere  a  picture 
of  Catholic  seminary  life. 

When  on  the  point  of  sailing  for  Baltimore,  M.  Nagot 
received  the  instructions  from  M.  Emery  contained  in 
the  previous  chapter.  The  superior-general  impressed 
upon  the  head  of  the  American  mission  the  paramount 
importance  of  implanting  in  his  American  colony  the 
spirit,  the  virtues,  the  traditions,  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  rules  received  by  the  Sulpicians  from  their  founder, 
M.  Olier.  These  words  were  not  wasted  on  M.  Nagot, 
and  from  the  very  day  of  the  dedication  of  St.  Mary's 
began  the  rule  of  M.  Oner's  spirit  and  regulation.  We 
have  already  set  these  forth  in  a  general  way.  What  we 
now  propose  to -do  is  to  examine  how  the  principles  of 
St.  Sulpice  were  put  into  action. 

Our  readers  will  remember  that  M.  Emery  had  pro- 
vided Bishop  Carroll  not  only  with  a  seminary  and  pro- 
fessors, but  also  with  five  students,  who  were  to  be  the 
seed  later  to  develop  into  the  great  seminary  of  Balti- 
more. Most  of  them  had  already  begun  their  theological 
studies  in  various  French  seminaries.  They  had,  there- 
fore, been  to  some  extent  impregnated  with  the  Sulpician 
spirit,  and  were  well  fitted  to  spread  it  in  the  new  insti- 
tution. Of  course,  this  did  not  relieve  the  faculty  of  the 
chief  burden  so  far  as  establishing  its  spirit  and  discipline 
was  concerned. 

at  St  Mary's  from  1792-1803.  Bnt  this  is  contradicted  by  the  article 
"Marshal"  in  Appleton's  "Encyclopedia  of  American  Biography"  and 
by  passages  in  Shea's  "History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United 
States  "  The  dates  in  the  "Memorial  Volume"  are  not  altogether  reliable. 


ST.  MARY'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810  65 

Seminary  life,  according  to  the  Sulpician  idea,  was 
not  merely,  nor  even  chiefly,  the  life  of  a  student.  It  was 
the  training  of  a  man  willing  to  become  the  guide  and 
helpmate  of  his  fellow-Christians,  according  to  the  de- 
signs of  Providence.  Therefore,  the  seminarians  were 
not  merely  to  study,  but  also  to  practise  the  virtues  to 
instil  which  into  their  future  parishioners  would  be  the 
principal  object  of  their  lives.  They  were  to  make  good 
Christians  by  first  being  good  Christians  themselves. 
They  were  not  to  preach  first,  and  to  practise  afterward, 
but  to  preach  by  practising.  They  were  to  teach  respect 
for  authority  by  displaying  submission  to  their  superiors. 

According  to  the  rule  of  St.  Sulpice,  the  young  men 
entrusted  to  the  care  of  the  Fathers  rose  every  morning 
at  five  o'clock,  and  this  rule  was  carried  out  at  Baltimore 
as  soon  as  the  institution  was  organized.  After  dressing, 
they  devoted  from  three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  an  hour  to 
meditation  and  then  attended  Mass.  An  hour  or  more  was 
then  given  to  study.  Breakfast  took  place  at  eight 
o'clock.  In  France,  after  the  fashion  of  the  country, 
fifteen  minutes  sufficed  for  the  Sulpician  breakfast,  but 
in  Baltimore  the  climatic  conditions  and  American  cus- 
tom somewhat  prolonged  that  meal.  The  dinner  bell 
rang  at  twelve  o'clock  and  tea  was  served  in  the  evening 
at  seven.  Between  a  half  hour  and  forty-five  minutes 
were  allowed  for  the  former  meal  and  about  a  half  hour 
for  the  latter.  Both  meals  were  followed  by  an  hour's 
recreation,  while  fifteen  minutes  were  allowed  for  recrea- 
tion after  breakfast.  The  students,  whether  of  philosophy 
or  theology,  had  two  lectures  a  day,  one  at  nine  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  the  other  in  the  afternoon  at  three  o'clock, 
both  of  which  lasted  an  hour.  After  the  lecture  the  pro- 
fessor remained  in  the  lecture  room  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  to  allow  students  to  propose  questions  on  points 
which  they  had  failed  to  understand. 


66       THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  seminarians  could  not  absent  themselves  either 
from  meals  or  from  recreation  without  being  authorized 
to  do  so  by  the  superior  of  the  house.  While  the  physical 
needs  of  the  young  Levites  were  thus  diligently  cared  for, 
their  spiritual  wants  were  not  neglected.  Throughout  the 
day  their  studies  and  their  recreations  were  interspersed 
with  short  exercises  of  piety,  which  impressed  upon  them 
the  fact  that  they  were  preparing  to  become  in  a  special 
sense  God's  servants.  Fifteen  minutes  before  dinner  they 
assembled  in  chapel  for  the  examination  of  conscience, 
which  was  prefaced  by  reading  on  their  knees  a  chapter 
from  Holy  Writ.  At  dinner  a  chapter  from  the  Bible, 
the  life  of  a  saint,  or  some  Church  history  was  read,  and, 
as  is  usual  in  religious  houses,  the  martyrology,  that  is  to 
say,  a  list  of  the  saints  whose  feast  falls  on  the  day.  The 
after  dinner  recreation  was  closed  by  the  recitation  of  the 
rosary.  Before  tea  half  an  hour  was  devoted  to  spiritual 
reading,  consisting  of  explanations  of  the  rules,  or  treatises 
on  the  Christian  virtues. 

The  time  not  appointed  to  exercises  of  devotion,  to 
meals  and  recreation,  was  assigned  to  class  instruction  and 
to  private  study,  two  hours  daily  being  allotted  to  philoso- 
phy for  the  students  of  that  science,  and  one  hour  each 
daily  to  dogma  and  to  moral  theology  for  the  theologians. 
If  we  analyze  this  distribution  of  time  it  will  be  found 
that  every  day  eight  hours,  or  one-third  of  the  twenty- 
four  hours,  were  given  to  sleep.  Of  the  remaining  sixteen, 
about  three  hours  were  assigned  to  prayer,  four  hours  to 
meals  and  recreation  and  eight  or  nine  to  class  and  private 
study. 

This  daily  program,  we  are  told  by  M.  Icard,  who  was 
superior-general  of  St.  Sulpice  in  the  eighties  of  the  last 
century,  in  his  interesting  and  instructive  work  entitled 
"Traditions  de  la  Compagnie  des  Pretres  de  Saint-Sul- 
pice,"  varied  but  slightly  from  the  distribution  of  time 


ST.  MABY'S  SEMINAET,  1791-1810  67 

in  vogue  in  M.  Oiler's  own  day.  As  we  shall  see  here- 
after, M.  Magnien,  the  superior  of  St.  [Mary's  Seminary 
during  the  last  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  sub- 
divided the  subjects  of  study  more  definitely,  and  made 
some  other  changes.  But  at  bottom  the  daily  program 
of  studies  in  Sulpician  seminaries  does  not  vary  radically 
from  that  followed  by  St.  Mary's  students  from  its  very 
foundation. 

Besides  these  daily  exercises  there  were  others  that 
were  weekly  or  monthly.  On  Saturday  before  night 
prayers,  and  at  the  same  hour  on  the  eves  of  greater  fes- 
tivals, the  young  men  assembled  to  listen  to  one  of  their 
fellow-students  who  delivered  a  discourse  on  the  Gospel 
of  the  following  day,  or  on  some  other  topic  suited  to  the 
season.  These  discourses  were  subject  to  criticism  by 
the  professors.  On  Sundays  and  festival  days  the  semi- 
narians with  their  professors  assisted  at  the  high  Mass, 
Vespers  and  Benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  in 
the  cathedral,  and  Bishop  Carroll  in  some  of  his  letters 
refers  to  the  great  impression  made  on  the  worshippers 
in  the  cathedral  by  the  solemnity  accruing  to  the  services 
from  the  presence  of  the  seminary  professors.  The  rules 
of  the  institution  required  the  seminarians  to  confess 
weekly.  As  to  communion,  there  was  no  hard  and  fast 
rule.  Students  were  expected  to  lead  so  virtuous  a  life 
that  their  directors  would  permit  them  to  communicate 
very  frequently.  The  entire  body  of  rules  was  obviously 
dictated  by  a  spirit  of  manliness  and  common  sense  and 
inspired  by  a  full  appreciation  of  the  lofty  mission  for 
which  the  young  levites  were  destined. 

Such  in  the  main  were  the  regulations  which  governed 
the  new  seminary  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  from  the 
time  when  it  was  opened  in  October,  1791.  There  were 
only  five  students,  if  indeed  there  were  so  many,  for  of 
the  five  gentlemen  selected  by  M.  Emery  to  be  the  pioneers 


68       THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  St.  Mary's,  we  find  that  only  three  were  ordained  there. 
At  least  two  of  these  spoke  English,  perhaps  also  the  third. 
Besides  their  regular  studies  they  prohably  acted  as  in- 
structors in  English  to  their  professors.  Perrineau  and 
Floyd  were  theologians,  for  they  were  ordained  in  1794 
and  1795,  while  Montdesir,  who  was  a  philosopher,  was 
not  ordained  until  1798. 

In  1792,  St.  Mary's  received  a  new  student  in  the  per- 
son of  Stephen  Badin,  who  was  to  have  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first  Catholic  priest  ordained  in  the  United 
States.  He  was  born  at  Orleans  in  1768,  and  while  en- 
gaged in  his  theological  studies  was  compelled  to  seek 
refuge  in  America  from  the  terrors  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. In  1793,  a  year  after  his  arrival  in  Baltimore, 
he  was  ordained.  The  next  year  he  spent  at  Georgetown 
teaching  and  perfecting  his  knowledge  of  English.  Then 
he  went  to  Kentucky  and  remained  in  the  West  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  except  during  nine  years,  from 
1819-1828,  which  he  spent  in  Europe.  In  Kentucky  he 
built  a  number  of  churches  for  the  pioneer  Catholics,  and 
proved  an  equally  successful  missionary  among  the  Pot- 
tawattomie  Indians  after  his  return  from  Europe.  He 
was  besides  a  man  of  literary  tastes,  being  the  author  of 
the  first  Catholic  book  published  in  the  West,  entitled 
"Principles  of  Catholics."  He  also  wrote  Latin  verse, 
several  of  his  poems  having  come  down  to  us. 

The  writer's  friend,  Father  Charles  Hippolyte  de 
Luynes,  S.J.,  who  was  professor  of  theology  in  Bishop 
Flaget's  seminary  in  Bardstown  during  the  thirties  of 
the  last  century,  and  was  himself  a  graduate  of  St.  Sul- 
pice  in  Paris,  knew  Father  Badin  in  the  West  and  spoke 
of  him  as  a  genial,  clever  man,  with  no  little  Gallic  wit, 
very  popular  among  Catholics  and  non-Catholics  alike. 
To  Father  de  Luynes  the  writer  is  indebted  for  the  fol- 
lowing story,  which  is  too  good  not  to  be  recorded. 


ST.  MABY'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810  69 

Father  Badin's  Sunday  missionary  trips  often  brought 
him  into  contact  with  some  of  his  Protestant  confreres, 
who  put  up  at  the  same  inns  as  himself.  Badin  was  a 
great  favorite  with  them  all  and  equally  popular  was  his 
mare,  which  the  old  missionary  had  ridden  for  many 
years.  One  Saturday  evening  Father  Badin  came  to  a 
certain  inn  mounted  on  a  new  horse,  and  immediately  two 
or  three  of  his  Protestant  colleagues  became  solicitous 
and  inquired  for  the  priest's  quadruped  friend.  Badin 
with  every  sign  of  grief  told  them  that  the  mare  was  dead. 
One  of  the  ministers  thereupon  expressed  the  hope  that 
Father  Badin  had  given  her  Extreme  Unction.  The  latter 
ruefully  shook  his  head  and,  manifesting  his  disgust,  de- 
clared that  the  old  mare  had  apostatized  and  turned  Prot- 
estant. Badin  died  in  1853. 

The  second  recruit  who  came  to  St.  Mary's  Seminary 
was  the  Eussian  prince,  Demetrius  Augustine  Gallitzin. 
He  became  a  student  of  St.  Mary's  in  November,  1792, 
and  was  ordained  in  1795  under  the  name  of  Schmet  or 
Smith.  He  did  not,  as  is  sometimes  stated,  become  a 
Catholic  in  Baltimore,  having  taken  this  step  five  years 
before.  He  was  a  son  of  Prince  Gallitzin,  the  Russian 
ambassador  at  The  Hague,  and  his  wife,  a  daughter  of 
the  Prussian  General  von  Schmettau.  Both  the  Prince 
and  the  Princess  grew  up  as  Rationalists,  but  in  1786  the 
Princess  became  a  Catholic,  and  later  was  the  center  of 
the  Catholic  literary  circle  in  Minister,  Westphalia. 
Prince  Gallitzin,  the  son,  before  his  ordination  asked  to 
be  received  as  a  member  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 
His  reception  took  place  on  February  23,  1795.  Bishop 
Carroll  insisted  upon  his  going  on  the  mission,  and  the 
Prince  never  rejoined  the  community.  He  founded 
various  Catholic  colonies  in  Pennsylvania,  the  best  known 
of  which,  Loretto,  exists  to  this  day.  His  name  became 
a  household  word  in  the  mountainous  districts  of  Pennsyl- 


70  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

vania  and  Maryland.  Several  biographies  of  the  Prince 
have  been  published,  one  in  German  by  Father  Lemcke 
of  Minister  and  one  in  English  by  Miss  Sarah  Brownson. 
M.  Perrineau,  after  studying  two  and  one-half  years 
at  St.  Mary's,  was  raised  to  the  priesthood  in  1794.  John 
Floyd,  an  Englishman  and  convert,  was  ordained  Decem- 
ber 19,  1795,  and  also  proved  to  be  a  worthy  son  of  St. 
Sulpice.  Even  before  his  ordination  he  had  been  associated 
with  M.  Gamier  in  his  missionary  labors  at  Fell's  Point 
among  the  people  of  St.  Patrick's  congregation.  After 
receiving  Holy  Orders  he  was  appointed  their  pastor  and 
built  the  first  St.  Patrick's  Church,  a  very  simple  build- 
ing, which  was  the  precursor  of  the  present  church  of 
the  same  name.  Floyd's  career  was  destined  to  be  short 
but  edifying.  In  September,  1797,  he  attended  a  parish- 
ioner prostrated  with  yellow  fever  and  immediately  after- 
ward was  stricken  by  the  plague  and  carried  off.  At  his 
own  request  he  was  buried  before  the  church  door,  the  first 
fruit  of  the  Sulpician  mission. 

M.  Montdesir,  the  youngest  of  M.  Kagot's  pioneer  stu- 
dents, taught  at  Georgetown;  he  returned  to  St.  Mary's 
in  1796,  was  ordained  in  1798,  exercised  the  ministry  up 
to  1801  and  then  returned  to  France,  where  some  of  his 
memoirs  have  been  published. 

The  first  native  American  student  who  received  Holy 
Orders  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary  was  Father  William  Mat- 
thews (1800),  the  nephew  of  the  Most  Reverend  Leonard 
Neale,  second  Archbishop  of  Baltimore.  In  1805  he 
became  the  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  in  Washington, 
a  position  which  he  held  until  his  death  fifty  years  later. 
In  1808  he  was  for  a  time  the  president  of  Georgetown 
College.  He  seems  to  have  been  interested  in  educational 
and  literary  matters  throughout  his  long  life.  Of  the 
four  other  alumni  of  St.  Mary's,  previous  to  1808,  two 
were  Frenchmen,  of  whom  we  only  know  the  date  of  their 


ST.  MABY'S  SEMINABY,  1791-1810  71 

ordination,  and  one,  Father  Ignatius  Brooke,  was  a  Mary- 
lander.  The  fourth,  Father  Michael  Cuddy,  ordained 
in  1803,  became  the  first  resident  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's 
Church,  at  Fell's  Point,  where  he  died  in  1804,  a  victim 
of  yellow  fever,  contracted  while  visiting  the  sick  of  his 
parish. 

Though  it  is  true  that  during  the  first  ten  or  twelve 
years  of  its  activity  St.  Mary's  Seminary  had  not  many 
students,  it  is  equally  true  that  her  alumni  were  men  of 
character  and  a  fair  proportion  of  them  men  of  distinction, 
of  whom  their  alma  mater  has  every  reason  to  be  proud. 
The  fact  that  a  number  of  them  were  not  only  zealous 
missionaries  but  also  men  of  literary  accomplishments 
certainly  bears  witness  to  the  scholarly  spirit  infused  into 
them  by  their  Sulpician  teachers. 

From  1803  to  1808  there  is  a  gap  in  the  list  of  St. 
Mary's  alumni,  the  cause  of  which  has  already  been  re- 
ferred to.  Here  we  need  only  say  that  not  only  Bishop 
Carroll,  but  also  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  themselves 
made  strenuous  efforts  to  procure  students  for  the  semi- 
nary. MM.  Babad  and  Dubourg  established  St.  Mary's 
College  in  Baltimore,  the  history  of  which  we  shall  treat 
more  at  length  hereafter.  M.  Flaget,  shortly  after  his 
arrival  in  America,  went  to  the  West,  partly  to  investigate 
what  prospects  there  were  for  a  preparatory  college  in  the 
old  French  settlements  near  the  Mississippi.  But  the 
results  were  disappointing. 

In  1806  another  preparatory  seminary  was  established 
at  Pigeon  Hill,  on  a  farm  in  Adams  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, donated  to  the  Sulpicians  by  M.  Joseph  Harent,  a 
French  gentleman  who  subsequently  joined  the  Society 
of  St.  Sulpice.  This  institution,  strictly  reserved  for 
young  men  desiring  to  become  priests,  drew  its  scholars,, 
some  dozen  in  all,  from  the  neighboring  Pennsylvania 
Germans.  Besides  M.  Dilhet,  the  venerable  head  of  St.. 


72  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Mary's  Seminary,  Father  Nagot  himself,  went  there  to 
instruct  the  boys  in  the  elements  of  the  classics  and 
mathematics.  When,  however,  a  year  or  two  afterward 
M.  Dubois  opened  Mount  St  Mary's  College  at  Emmits- 
burg,  the  Pigeon  Hill  students  were  transferred  there. 

Surely  the  American  Sulpicians  by  these  repeated  ef- 
forts showed  how  thoroughly  in  earnest  they  were  to  meet 
the  views  of  M.  Emery  and  to  create  conditions  promis- 
ing a  richer  and  steadier  supply  of  students  for  the  Balti- 
more Seminary.  At  all  events,  through  their  vigorous 
efforts  and  those  of  the  bishop  there  came  about  a  marked 
change  for  the  better.  According  to  the  Abbe  Gosselin,1 
the  seminary  in  1804  had  as  many  as  twelve  students  and 
in  1806  seven  tonsured  students  were  promoted,  the  larg- 
est number  thus  far  ordained  at  one  time  in  the  United 
States.  The  year  1808  was  even  more  remarkable  in 
this  respect,  for  Bishops  Carroll  and  Neale  in  that  year 
promoted  to  the  priesthood  no  less  than  six  candidates, 
the  former  two  at  Baltimore,  the  latter  four  at  George- 
town. It  should  be  remarked  that  the  four  ordained  by 
Bishop  Neale,  after  pursuing  their  studies  for  a  time 
under  the  Sulpician  instruction  had  joined  the  recently 
revived  Society  of  Jesus. 

During  the  remainder  of  M.  Nagot's  administration 
only  two  seminarians  were  promoted  to  the  priesthood. 
But  these  last  fruits  of  the  good  old  superior's  educational 
activity  did  no  less  credit  to  their  teachers  than  their  pred- 
ecessors. Most  prominent  among  them  was  Benedict 
Fenwick,  one  of  the  young  men  ordained  at  Georgetown, 
whose  scholarship  and  activity  proved  a  blessing  wherever 
they  found  a  field.  The  year  after  his  ordination  he  aided 
Father  Anthony  Kohlmann,  S.  J.,  in  his  duties  as  vicar- 
general  of  the  new  diocese  of  New  York.  He  was  the 
mainstay  of  the  New  York  Literary  Institution,  the  first 

1  Gosselin,  op.  cit.t  vol.  ii,  p.  151. 


ST.  MARY'S  SEMINARY,  1791-1810  T3 

Jesuit  high  school  in  that  city.  Later  on  he  became 
president  of  Georgetown  College  and  gave  a  great  impulse 
to  its  prosperity.  Then  he  restored  harmony  and  order 
among  the  quarreling  Catholics  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and 
after  again  administering  Georgetown  College  he  was  ap- 
pointed Bishop  of  Boston  (1825)  to  succeed  Cardinal 
Cheverus.  As  head  of  the  New  England  diocese  his  in- 
fluence was  felt,  from  the  Indian  missions  in  Maine  to 
the  limits  of  the  New  York  diocese,  organizing  parishes 
and  building  churches,  so  that  at  his  death,  in  1846,  in- 
stead of  the  fifteen  churches  and  chapels  he  found  there 
in  1825,  he  left  fifty  to  his  successor.  He  had,  moreover, 
built  the  well-known  convent  at  Charlestown,  which  was 
burned  by  a  mob  of  bigots,  and  established  Holy  Cross 
College  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  at  present  the  most  flourish- 
ing Jesuit  college  in  the  United  States. 

Enoch  Fenwick  was  another  of  the  four  young  Jesuits 
ordained  by  Bishop  Neale  at  Georgetown.  His  merits  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he  was  president  of  George- 
town College  in  1822.  Of  the  secular  priests,  the  best 
known  was  the  Rev.  M.  F.  Roloff,  who  was  active  on  the 
missions  in  various  places.  After  his  ordination,  having 
taught  for  some  time  at  Pigeon  Hill,  he  was  sent  to  the 
German  parish  of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  Philadelphia. 
Later  he  was  noted  for  his  activity  in  what  is  now  West 
Virginia,  at  Martinsburg  and  Wheeling,  and  in  1841  we 
find  him  entrusted  with  the  task  of  building  the  first  Ger- 
man Catholic  church  in  Boston,  Mass.  Father  Roloff 
was  a  native  of  Bavaria,  and  was  probably  the  first  Ger- 
man American  priest  ordained  in  the  United  States. 

In  1810,  the  last  year  of  M.  Nagot's  administration, 
the  only  student  ordained  at  St.  Mary's  was  the  Rev. 
James  Hector  Nicholas  Joubert  de  la  Muraille,  the 
descendant  of  a  noble  French  family.  He  left  France  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution  and  accepted  an  office  in  the 


74  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tax  department  in  San  Domingo,  where  a  wealthy  uncle  of 
his  had  settled.  He  escaped  from  the  island  during  the 
negro  uprising  and  reached  Baltimore  in  safety.  There 
he  entered  the  seminary,  and  after  his  ordination  de- 
voted himself  to  the  service  of  the  black  race,  many  of 
whom,  faithful  to  their  masters,  had  fled  with  them  to 
Baltimore.  The  difficulties  of  catechizing  these  poor  peo- 
ple led  him  and  Father  Tessier,  in  1828,  to  organize  a 
little  society  of  colored  women  to  aid  in  their  instruction. 
They  drew  up  for  them  a  body  of  rules,  which  was  ap- 
proved by  Pope  Gregory  XVI  in  1831.  In  this  way  M. 
Joubert  became  the  founder  of  the  Oblate  Sisters  of 
Providence,  which  at  present  numbers  some  ten  houses 
in  the  United  States  and  Cuba,  with  a  membership  of 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  nuns.  The  Rev.  M.  Joubert 
became  a  Sulpician  and  resided  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary 
to  the  end  of  his  life. 

After  M.  Gander's  recall  to  France  in  1803,  he  was 
replaced  by  M.  John  Baptist  David,  a  Breton,  born  near 
Nantes,  in  1761.  After  his  ordination,  in  1785,  he  joined 
the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  was  professor  of  philosophy 
and  theology  in  various  French  seminaries  until  the  dis- 
orders of  the  French  Eevolution  sent  him  to  Baltimore 
in  1792.  Bishop  Carroll  entrusted  him  with  the  missions 
in  the  lower  part  of  Maryland,  where  he  proved  a  zealous 
pastor  of  souls.  He,  it  is  said,  was  the  first  in  America 
to  preach  retreats  to  lay  people.  For  two  years  he  taught 
philosophy  at  Georgetown  and  in  1804  he  was  called  to  St. 
Mary's  Seminary,  where  he  remained  until  1811,  prob- 
ably attending  to  most  of  the  work  which  M.  Gamier 
had  done  until  1803.  Another  distinguished  Sulpician 
who  was  connected  with  the  seminary  during  this  period 
was  the  saintly  M.  Flaget 

The  institution  during  these  years  was,  therefore,  in 
excellent  hands,  and  quietly  but  effectively  grew  in 


ST.    MABY'S    SEMINARY,    1791-1810  75 

strength  and  numbers.  In  one  particular  only  St.  Mary's 
was  at  a  disadvantage.  M.  Nagot,  since  his  return  from 
Pigeon  Hill  or  Friendly  Hall,  was  failing  in  health,  hav- 
ing passed  the  traditional  three  score  and  ten  and  never 
having  recovered  completely  from  his  paralytic  stroke  in 
1795.  Age  was  now  dealing  harshly  with  the  venerable 
superior's  diminishing  reserve  of  strength.  As  the  years 
wore  on  he  felt  more  and  more  the  ravages  of  time.  Un- 
willing to  cling  to  an  office  for  which  he  was  conscious 
he  had  no  longer  the  strength,  he  determined  to  place 
the  interests  of  St  Sulpice  on  younger  and  more  vigorous 
shoulders.  Accordingly,  in  1810,  he  resigned  his  office 
as  superior  and  became  a  simple  inmate  of  the  house 
which  he  had  governed  so  wisely,  so  loyally,  and  so  gently 
for  nineteen  years.  He  continued  to  dwell  at  St.  Mary's, 
revered  and  cherished  by  all  his  brethren,  whom  he  loved, 
and  to  be  for  them  an  example  of  piety,  simplicity,  and 
devotion  to  duty  until  he  was  called  to  his  reward  in 
the  year  1816. 


CHAPTEB  IV 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  M.  JOHN  MARY  TESSIER,  1810-1829 

M.  John  Mary  Tessier  was  the  successor  of  M.  Nagot 
as  superior  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  (1810).  Every  con- 
sideration of  wisdom  and  expediency  pointed  him  out 
as  the  man  to  take  up  the  first  superior's  work.  He  had 
been  associated  with  M.  Nagot  from  the  very  foundation 
of  the  seminary,  and  he  was  still  in  the  vigor  of  his 
strength,  having  reached  the  age  of  fifty-two  years.  From 
the  first  he  had  been  appreciated  by  Bishop  Carroll  for 
his  admirable  qualities  of  character  and  learning  and 
for  his  practical  views  of  things.  We  find  his  name 
associated  with  the  bishop's  on  such  occasions  as  the 
opening  of  the  first  Synod  of  Baltimore  in  1791  and  the 
blessing  of  St.  Patrick's  Church  at  Fell's  Point  in  1792. 
He  always  retained  the  bishop's  confidence,  which  he  had 
gained  thus  early.  He  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
temporal  needs  and  resources  of  the  institution,  for  from 
the  beginning  he  had  been  its  treasurer  and  business  man- 
ager. Of  the  original  professors,  now  that  M.  Gamier 
was  in  Europe  and  M.  Nagot  was  shelved  by  age,  he  was 
the  only  one  left.  His  appointment  was,  therefore,  almost 
a  necessity.  M.  Tessier  was  a  man  of  vigorous  physique, 
sturdy  and  robust.  His  prominent,  substantial  nose,  his 
thin  and  drawn  lips,  and  round  face  suggested  a  man  of 
determination.  His  was  a  serious  but  a  kind  and  affable 
face,  on  the  whole  inspiring  confidence  in  his  good  will 
as  well  as  in  his  power  to  protect  all  who  were  committed 

to  his  care. 

76 


M.  JEAN  MARIE  TESSIER. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MART    TESSIER          77 

In  1810  the  only  Sulpician  at  St.  Mary's  besides  M. 
Tessier  was  M.  John  Baptist  David,  whose  name  is  in- 
separable from  that  of  the  great  Bishop  Flaget,  and  who 
became  the  latter^  coadjutor  at  Bardstown.     He  was  a 
rotund,  good-natured  Breton,  whose  learning  was  equaled 
by  his  piety,  but  he  was  not  destined  to  stay  with  M. 
Tessier  for  a  long  time.     In  1811,  at  the  request  of  M. 
Emery,  he  accompanied  Bishop  Flaget  to  Bardstown,  and 
was  the  chief  pillar  of  the  Bardstown  Seminary  for  many 
years.    His  place  at  St.  Mary's  was  taken  in  1812  by  M. 
Ambrose  Marechal.     This  gentleman,  who  became  the 
third  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  was  a  native  of  Ingres, 
near  Orleans,  having  been  born  there  in  1768.     He  at 
first    studied    jurisprudence,    but   his   pious   disposition 
led  him  to  the  seminary   and  finally  induced  him   to 
join  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.    When,  in  1792,  the  hor- 
rors of  the  Revolution  drove  him,  before  he  could  say  his 
first  Mass,  to  seek  refuge  in  the  United  States,  he  seemed 
at  first  destined  to  be  a  missionary.     But  he  was  nat- 
urally a  student.     After  five  years'  service  at  Bohemia 
Manor  we  find  him  at  the  seminary,  from  which  he  at- 
tended the  Winchester  Mission,  twenty-two  miles  distant 
from  Baltimore.    For  a  year  (1801-02)  he  taught  philoso- 
phy at  Georgetown. 

M.  Emery  recalled  him  to  France  in  1803.  There  he 
was  active  as  professor  of  theology  at  St.  Flour,  Aix,  and 
Lyons  until  Napoleon  suppressed  the  Sulpicians  shortly 
before  his  fall.  So  it  came  about  that  in  1812  he  was 
made  professor  of  theology  at  St.  Mary's,  Baltimore,  and 
during  the  next  five  years  became  the  principal  professor 
of  theology  there.  He  was  eminently  fitted  for  the  place, 
not  only  by  his  theological  learning  and  his  virtues,  but 
also  by  his  loyalty  to  his  adopted  country.  How  well  his 
patriotism  fitted  him  to  inspire  the  young  clergymen  who 
were  to  instil  love  of  country  into  the  minds  of  the  future 


78  THE    SUXPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Catholic  citizens  of  the  United  States,  we  may  infer  from 
his  bold  and  vigorous  opposition  to  the  interference  of 
foreign  prelates  in  the  administration  of  the  Church  in 
America.  We  have  in  mind  here  the  attempts  in  this 
direction,  at  Norfolk  and  at  Richmond,  Va.,  about  1818 
and  1820. 

M.  Marechal's  success  at  the  seminary  was  so  great, 
and  the  impression  he  made  so  marked,  that  he  was  ap- 
pointed coadjutor  to  Archbishop  Neale,  who,  however, 
died  before  the  arrival  in  Baltimore  of  the  Bulls  creating 
M.  Marechal  his  assistant,  with  the  right  of  succession. 
When  they  finally  came,  M.  Marechal  was  forthwith  con- 
secrated Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  and  so  the  seminary 
lost  the  services  of  this  distinguished  and  able  Sulpician. 
His  place  was  taken  by  M.  Louis  Regis  Deluol,  who  was 
professor  of  theology  until  the  arrival  of  M.  Fredet  in 
1831.  M.  Deluol  had  taught  theology  at  the  seminary  of 
Viviers  after  the  suppression  of  the  Sulpicians  by  Na- 
poleon. When,  however,  the  Society  was  reconstituted 
by  Louis  XVIII  in  1814,  M.  Deluol  was  admitted  as  a 
member  and  in  1817  was  sent  to  Baltimore.  He  as- 
sumed his  new  duties  with  great  energy,  and  soon  was 
master  of  the  English  language.  He  became  quite  an 
orator,  as  appears  from  the  fact  that  he  delivered  the 
funeral  oration  of  Archbishop  Whitfield,  October  21, 
1834.  He  was  also  the  preacher  at  the  Synod  of  Balti- 
more, held  November  8,  1831. 

M.  Deluol  proved  to  be  a  man  of  great  practical  and 
administrative  talent,  which  led  to  his  being  named  su- 
perior-general of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  at  Emmitsburg,  a 
position  he  filled  so  well  that  even  after  resigning  this 
office,  in  1829,  he  greatly  influenced  the  government  of 
the  Sisterhood.  M.  Deluol  was  a  distinguished  scholar 
and  an  able  teacher,  and  so  during  the  administration  of 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MARY    TESSIER 


79 


M.  Tessier  St.  Mary's  faculty,  though  small,  was  efficient 
and  successful. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  that  about  1804  there  was 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  students  who  attended  the 
seminary.  This  does  not  mean  that  about  this  time  the 
attendance  at  the  seminary  grew  to  great  proportions.  A 
large  number  of  theologians  was  not  desirable,  because 
the  number  of  Catholics  in  Bishop  Carroll's  diocese  was 
still  very  small.  Moreover,  the  great  diocese  of  Baltimore 
was  divided  in  1808,  and  other  clerical  seminaries  sprang 
up  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  But  after  the  acces- 
sion of  M.  Tessier  as  superior  of  the  seminary  there  was 
an  uninterrupted  stream  of  candidates  for  the  priesthood. 
In  the  nineteen  years  during  which  he  governed  the  insti- 
tution, forty-eight  priests  were  ordained,  according  to  the 
"Memorial  Volume  of  the  Centenary  of  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary" (p.  49  sqq.).  The  largest  number  ordained  at  one 
time,  namely  five,  was  in  1819,  while  in  the  years  1813, 
1816,  1822,  1823  only  a  single  student  was  raised  to  the 
priesthood. 

The  yearly  elevations  of  alumni  to  the  priesthood  sug- 
gest that  the  stream  of  students,  if  not  great,  was  steady. 
As  a  whole,  St.  Mary's  candidates  for  the  priesthood  were 
quite  representative  of  the  Catholic  population  of  the 
archdiocese  and  its  suffragans.  Among  the  forty-eight 
young  men  who  completed  their  studies  there  under  M. 
Tessier  we  notice  some  fourteen  whose  names  sug- 
gest Maryland  descent,  such  as  Elder,  Wheeler,  Jami- 
son, and  Knight.  This  shows  that  the  old  Maryland 
families  had  lost  none  of  their  devotion  to  the  Church, 
and  that  they  still  formed  a  strong  factor  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical life  of  the  archdiocese.  We  count  nineteen  Irish 
names,  some  of  which,  of  course,  may  belong  to  the  old 
Maryland  stock,  but  most  of  whom  probably  belong  to  a 
more  recent  immigration.  The  seven  German  students 


80  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

were,  in  all  likelihood,  the  offspring  of  the  old  German 
Jesuit  parishes  in  Pennsylvania,  which  had  remained  un- 
der the  pastoral  care  of  the  former  Jesuits  even  after  the 
suppression  of  the  Society. 

As  the  French  students  seem  to  have  been  all,  or  for  the 
most  part,  native  Frenchmen  we  can  not  go  far  wrong  in 
assuming  that  they  were  drawn  to  Baltimore  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Sulpician  Fathers,  and  this  inference  is  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  several  of  them  afterward  joined 
the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  Even  the  convert  element  in 
the  population  of  the  new  Republic  was  duly  represented 
by  such  men  as  Samuel  Eccleston  and  Samuel  Cooper, 
both  of  whom  were  scions  of  old  Protestant  families.  The 
student  body  at  St.  Mary's  was  truly  catholic  in  the  num- 
ber of  nations  represented,  and  catholic  in  the  feeling  of 
charity  which  bound  them  all  in  one  harmonious  com- 
munity. MM.  Tessier  and  Deluol  achieved  this  remark- 
able result  not  only  by  the  exercise  of  their  authority,  but, 
perhaps,  even  more  by  their  gentleness,  and  by  the  spirit 
of  M.  Olier,  whose  watchword  was  peace  and  love. 

What  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  harmony  and  suc- 
cess which  characterized  the  seminary  was  the  fact  that 
the  institution  was  the  home  of  industry  and  work,  and 
was  animated  by  the  spirit  of  scholarship  and  love  of 
literature.  The  number  of  scholars,  Catholic  and  Prot- 
estant, at  this  time  to  be  found  in  the  United  States  was 
naturally  small,  and  one  of  the  great  difficulties  with 
which  all  American  institutions  of  higher  learning  strug- 
gled was  the  lack  of  scholarly  teachers.  Even  in  the  older 
colleges  we  often  find  young  Bachelors  of  Arts  promoted 
to  professorships  with  surprising  rapidity.  The  Catho- 
lics, who  had  been  tolerated  only  since  the  year  of  Inde- 
pendence, suffered  no  less  from  this  evil  than  non-Catho- 
lics. How  Georgetown  was  cramped  in  this  particular 
we  have  already  seen,  and  it  has  been  remarked  that  St. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MARY    TESSIER          81 

Mary's  was  retarded  in  its  growth  by  the  needs  of  George- 
town. 

In  the  same  way  many  of  the  graduates  of  Mount  St. 
Mary's,  Emmitsburg,  and  many  of  the  students  in  its 
seminary  were  drafted  to  instruct  the  students  in  the  lower 
classes  of  that  institution.  St.  Mary's  College  had  ex- 
isted alongside  of  the  seminary  grounds  since  1799.  The 
history  of  the  seminary  makes  it  clear  that  the  pedagogic 
work  of  its  students  was  in  some  ways  beneficial  to  these 
young  men  themselves.  The  authorities  of  the  seminary 
saw  to  it  that  they  were  not  overburdened  with  work,  and 
the  mental  drill  which  is  of  necessity  connected  with  the 
teacher's  work  was  a  decided  advantage  to  them  in  their 
theological  studies.  It  made  them  more  critical  in  their 
own  work  and  markedly  advanced  them  in  their  mastery 
of  the  vernacular.  As  a  consequence  not  a  few  of  these 
student  teachers  afterward  became  skilful  writers,  and 
their  acquirements  enabled  them,  in  the  contemporary 
journals  and  by  the  publication  of  scholarly  books,  to  con- 
tribute to  the  defense  of  Catholic  doctrine  and  the  in- 
struction of  the  Catholic  laity. 

Among  the  alumni  of  St.  Mary's  who  were  active  in 
this  field  was  Rev.  George  A.  M.  Elder,  a  Kentuckian, 
who  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  "Catholic  Advocate," 
published  in  Bardstown,  Ky.  He  was  also  the  author 
of  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Letters  to  Brother  Jonathan." 
We  may  add  that  he  was  likewise  the  founder  of  St.  Jo- 
seph's College,  Bardstown  (1820-23),  and  its  first  presi- 
dent. The  Rev.  Ignatius  A.  Reynolds,  afterward  Bishop 
of  Charleston,  was  the  editor  of  Bishop  England's  works. 
The  most  prominent  Catholic  litterateur  in  the  United 
States  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Constantino  Pise,  ordained  at  St. 
Mary's  in  1825.  He  wrote  not  only  a  history  of  the 
Church  in  five  volumes,  but  also  several  novels  and  a  vol- 


82  THE    SULPICIANS    IN   THE    UNITED   STATES 

uine  of  poems.  He  was  likewise  the  editor  of  the  "Met- 
ropolitan" and  the  "Catholic  Expositor."  He  has  the 
distinction  of  having  been  the  only  Catholic  chaplain  of 
the  United  States  Senate  and  was  a  great  friend  of  Henry 
Clay. 

That  their  teaching  experience  at  St.  Mary's  remained 
a  lifelong  inspiration  for  some  of  its  alumni  is  evident 
by  the  zeal  for  the  cause  of  education  displayed  by  many 
of  them.  We  do  not  claim  that  we  have  gathered  the 
names  of  all  the  alumni  of  this  period  who  deserve  to 
be  recorded  as  educators.  We  have  already  mentioned 
Father  George  A.  M.  Elder,  the  founder  and  first  presi- 
dent of  St.  Joseph's  College,  Bardstown,  Ky.  Associated 
with  him  in  this  work  was  the  Rev.  William  Byrne,  a 
most  enthusiastic  apostle  of  education,  who,  besides  St. 
Joseph's,  founded  several  boys'  and  girls'  schools  in  Penn- 
sylvania. He  died  a  victim  of  his  devotion  to  his  pastoral 
duties  during  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1832. 

Another  alumnus  who  was  especially  interested  in  edu- 
cation was  the  Eev.  Michael  F.  Wheeler,  to  whom  the 
Academy  of  the  Visitation  is  indebted  for  many  bene- 
factions, and  who  remained  its  friend  to  his  death,  which, 
like  Father  Byrne's,  was  due  to  cholera.  He  had  been 
president  of  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  from  1827-28. 
To  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Cloriviere,  the  Georgetown  Academy 
of  the  Visitation  owes  an  equal  debt  of  gratitude.  This 
remarkable  man,  better  known  as  Chevalier  de  Limoelan, 
had  fought  the  French  Republic  in  the  Vendee  under  Ca- 
doudal.  Having  been  implicated  in  the  plot  of  3  Nivose 
he  succeeded  in  evading  the  French  police,  crossed  the  At- 
lantic, and  determined  (1808)  to  give  the  rest  of  his  life 
to  the  Church.  His  eminent  services  to  the  Sisters  of  the 
Visitation  have  never  been  forgotten  by  them.1 

The  Rev.  John  Larkin  was  ordained  at  St.  Mary's  in 

1  See  "A  Sketch  of  J.  P.  Limoglan  de  Cloriviere,"  by  P.  Marlque,  Ph.D., 
In  "Historical  Records  and  Studies,"  vol.  viii,  pp.  197-208. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MARY    TES8IEE          83 

1827.  He  was  a  native  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne  in  Eng- 
land, but  of  Irish  extraction.  He  had  been  a  pupil  of 
Dr.  Lingard  at  TJshaw,  where  Cardinal  Wiseman  was  one 
of  his  fellow-students.  Subsequently  he  had  begun  his 
theological  studies  at  St.  Sulpice  in  Paris  and  had  come 
to  Baltimore  to  complete  them.  After  his  ordination  he 
joined  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  and  went  to  Canada, 
where  he  acquired  a  great  reputation  as  a  classical  profes- 
sor. How  closely  he  was  associated  with  his  old  teachers 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  when,  in  1841,  he  thought  of 
becoming  a  Jesuit  he  consulted  his  professor,  M.  Deluol, 
at  Baltimore  before  taking  the  final  step.  As  a  Jesuit 
he  was  equally  reputed  as  a  scholar,  an  orator,  and  a  wise 
and  prudent  administrator.  He  was  the  first  president 
of  the  Jesuit  high  school  in  New  York  which  afterward 
became  St.  Francis  Xavier's  College  (1847-49),  and  in 
1851  he  became  rector  of  St.  John's  College,  Fordham. 

Prominent  among  this  galaxy  of  educators  was  the 
Right  Rev.  George  A.  Carrell,  who  died  Bishop  of  Cov- 
ington  in  1868.  After  filling  a  chair  at  the  University 
of  St.  Louis,  he  was  its  president  from  1845  to  1848. 
Between  1851  and  1853  he  was  president  of  Purcell  Man- 
sion College,  Cincinnati.  Dr.  Charles  Constantino  Pise, 
of  whom  we  have  spoken  above,  was  for  some  years  pro- 
fessor at  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg.  Fa- 
thers Damphoux,  Xaupi,  Hickey,  and  Harent  joined  the 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice  and  rendered  notable  services  to 
education  at  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore.  Harent, 
moreover,  donated  to  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  his  farm 
in  Pennsylvania,  the  farm  on  which  M.  Nagot  founded 
the  lower  seminary  of  Pigeon  Hill  or  Friendly  Hall.  M. 
Chanche,  who  became  the  first  Bishop  of  Natchez,  after 
being  for  many  years  a  member  of  St.  Mary's  faculty, 
served  as  president  of  the  college,  1835-1840. 

M.  Olier  and  the  other  Sulpicians,  regarding  as  they 


84  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

did  the  formation  of  a  true  Christian  apostolic  character 
as  the  foremost  aim  of  their  Society  and  of  their  semi- 
nary work,  the  aspirants  to  clerical  honors  and  dignities 
were  first  of  all  to  be  filled  with  the  spirit  of  charity  and 
devotion  to  their  flocks  and  their  duties.  The  men  who 
left  St.  Mary's  during  M.  Tessier's  administration  real- 
ized by  their  lives  and  their  work  the  ideals  which  their 
teachers  placed  before  them.  Throughout  a  great  part  of 
the  United  States,  not  only  in  Maryland  and  Kentucky 
and  the  South,  but  also  in  Pennsylvania  and  farther  north, 
their  lives  constitute  the  annals  of  the  Church.  They 
were  good,  earnest  missionaries  and  pastors,  zealous  teach- 
ers and  founders  of  boys'  and  girls'  schools  when  the 
opportunities  of  acquiring  elementary  learning  were  scant 
and  difficult  of  access.  We  find  them  eager  to  help  the 
sick  and  the  poor  by  founding  institutions  of  charity  for 
the  relief  of  every  kind  of  human  misery.  They  built  hos- 
pitals and  orphan  asylums  as  well  as  churches.  When 
those  dreadful  scourges,  cholera  and  yellow  fever,  invaded 
our  country  they  defied  their  terrors  and  unhesitatingly 
gave  their  lives  for  their  flocks,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case 
of  Fathers  Byrne  and  Wheeler. 

But  St.  Mary's  furnished  not  only  most  of  the  parish 
clergy  to  the  archdiocese  of  Baltimore  and  its  suffra- 
gans, but  it  also  gave  able,  distinguished,  and  pious  prel- 
ates to  many  sees  in  different  parts  of  the  Republic,  men 
who  proved  that  their  instructors  understood  not  only  how 
to  train  them  in  virtue  and  learning,  but  also  how  to  de- 
velop in  them  the  wisdom,  foresight,  and  authoritative 
character  which  are  indispensable  to  the  good  governor. 

Two  of  these  prelates,  besides  being  pupils  of  the  Sul- 
picians,  joined  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  These  were 
Bishop  Chanche  of  Natchez  and  Mgr.  Eccleston,  the 
fifth  Archbishop  of  Baltimore.  Bishop  Chanche,  after 
teaching  at  St.  Mary's  for  twenty-three  years,  and  serving 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MARY    TE8SIER          85 

as  its  president  (1835-1840),  and  having  twice  refused 
the  mitre,  finally  accepted  the  bishopric  of  Natchez,  a  see 
without  church  or  priest  Here  he  not  only  huilt  eleven 
churches  and  established  thirty-two  missionary  stations, 
but  introduced  various  Sisterhoods  to  take  charge  of  the 
schools,  academies,  and  orphan  asylums  which  he  founded. 
He  died  in  1853. 

Mgr.  Ignatius  Chabrat,  coadjutor  of  Bishop  Flaget 
after  being  a  zealous  missionary  in  Kentucky,  directed  for 
some  years  the  famous  convent  of  Loretto.  The  loss  of 
his  eyesight  caused  him  to  resign  as  bishop. 

The  Rev.  Ignatius  A.  Reynolds  was  an  unusually  able 
and  energetic  priest.  After  proving  himself  a  faithful 
missionary,  an  inspiring  teacher  and  an  eloquent  orator 
in  his  native  diocese  of  Bardstown,  he  became  president 
of  Bardstown  College.  Nearly  fifty  years  afterward  the 
writer  heard  his  old  friend,  Father  de  Luynes,  who  dur- 
ing the  fourth  decade  of  the  last  century  had  been  pro- 
fessor in  Bardstown  Seminary,  speak  of  him  with  un- 
bounded admiration.  He  was  the  first  Catholic  pastor 
of  Louisville,  where  he  founded  an  orphanage  and  where 
he  subsequently  became  vicar-general.  As  Bishop  of 
Charleston,  S.  C.  (1844-52),  he  gained  the  love  and  re- 
spect of  Catholics  and  non-Catholics,  so  that  he  was 
scarcely  less  popular  than  Bishop  England  had  been. 

Of  Bishop  Carrell,  who  became  a  member  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus  before  he  was  raised  to  the  see  of  Coving- 
ton,  we  have  already  spoken.  After  his  elevation  to  the 
episcopacy  he  proved  himself  a  vigorous  administrator, 
building  churches,  establishing  schools,  founding  hospi- 
tals and  orphan  asylums,  and  building  St.  Mary's  Ca- 
thedral in  little  more  than  two  years.  The  most  distin- 
guished prelate  sent  forth  by  the  Baltimore  Seminary 
during  M.  Tessier's  term  was  the  fifth  Archbishop  of  Bal- 
timore, the  Most  Rev.  Samuel  Eccleston.  Born  in  Kent 


86  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

County,  Maryland,  in  1801,  Dr.  Eccleston  became  a  Cath- 
olic while  a  student  of  St.  Mary's  College,  and  after  his 
ordination,  in  1825,  continued  his  theological  studies  at 
Issy,  near  Paris.  He  then  joined  the-  Society  of  St.  Sul- 
pice,  became  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege, Baltimore,  and  finally  its  president  (1829-34). 

As  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  in  addition  to  watching 
over  the  interests  of  education  and  looking  after  the  Ger- 
man Catholics,  who  were  unable  to  speak  English,  he  se- 
cured a  more  perfect  system  in  the  government  of  the 
Church  by  holding  five  provincial  councils.  He  regulated 
the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State  by  settling  the  mode 
of  transmitting  Church  property  from  bishop  to  bishop, 
and  confirmed  the  principle  that  a  State  divorce  is  not 
valid  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Church.  In  short,  Dr.  Ec- 
cleston was  universally  regarded  as  the  model  of  a  wise, 
watchful,  scholarly,  and  patriotic  prelate,  an  honor  to  the 
old  Maryland  stock  and  to  the  men  who  had  reared  and 
trained  him  in  virtue  and  religion. 

No  further  words  are  needed  to  convince  the  reader  that 
under  M.  Tessier  St.  Mary's  was  an  eminently  useful 
institution;  that  its  professors  were  men  markedly  fitted 
to  train  students  in  learning  and  virtue,  and  to  develop 
in  them  all  those  qualities  of  mind  and  morals  which 
made  them  useful  men,  useful  alike  to  Church  and  State, 
able  to  advance  the  cause  of  education,  of  literature,  of 
civic  order,  and  of  religion.  To  achieve  this  result  was 
the  purpose  of  the  daily  work  of  both  professor  and  stu- 
dent. 

But  all  the  energy  of  M.  Tessier  was  not  expended 
within  the  four  walls  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  The  Sul- 
pician  Seminary,  and  especially  its  head,  stands  in  a  pecu- 
liarly close  relation  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  who  is 
in  fact  as  well  as  in  theory  the  supreme  head  of  the  semi- 
nary. One  of  the  chief  preoccupations  of  the  leading  men 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MARY    TESSIEB          87 

in  St.  Sulpice  had,  therefore,  always  been  to  gain  the  con- 
fidence of  the  ordinary  of  the  see  and  to  aid  him  in  every 
manner. 

M.  Tessier  did  not  neglect  this  duty.  His  was  fortu- 
nately so  attractive  a  character  that  he  won  for  himself 
the  hearts  of  Archbishops  Carroll  and  Neale,  as  well  as 
the  good  will  of  his  brother  in  St.  Sulpice,  Archbishop 
Marechal.  On  occasions  of  great  solemnity  he  and  his 
brethren  of  the  seminary  appeared  as  members  of  the  suite 
of  the  archbishop.  When,  in  October,  1821,  Archbishop 
Marechal  went  to  Europe,  M.  Tessier  acted  as  adminis- 
trator in  his  absence.  It  was  the  Sulpician  superior  who 
blessed  St.  Peter's  Church  in  Washington  (November  4, 
1821)  and  the  chapel  of  the  Convent  of  the  Visitation. 
M.  Tessier  seems  also  to  have  been  the  right  hand  of  Arch- 
bishop Whitfield  of  Baltimore,  who  appointed  him  his  vi- 
car-general. He  had  then  acquired  a  competent  knowl- 
edge of  the  English  language,  for  at  the  Synod  of  Balti- 
more, held  November,  1831,  he  was  one  of  the  official 
preachers. 

Of  course,  all  the  students  of  St.  Mary's  were  not  au- 
thors, college  presidents,  and  archbishops  in  embryo,  but 
the  proportion  of  men  of  character  and  ability  was  very 
high,  and  the  remainder  of  the  seminarians  were  good 
men,  conscientious,  industrious,  and  intelligent,  all  of 
whom  proved  worthy  laborers  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord 
and  brought  honor  to  themselves  and  their  alma  mater. 
The  community  life  of  such  a  company  was  fully  as  at- 
tractive as  it  was  laborious.  Tastes  were  created  and 
satisfied  that  gave  joy  and  consecration  to  the  rest  of 
their  lives.  Friendships  were  contracted  which  neither 
time  nor  separation  could  tear  asunder,  and  these  friend- 
ships were  formed  not  only  among  the  students  but  also 
between  them  and  the  professors.  Life  was  restful  and 


88  THE    STTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

happy,  but  not  tedious  or  monotonous,  and  every  year 
made  the  institution  more  useful  and  promising. 

There  were  occasions,  however,  when  St.  Mary's  felt 
the  stirrings  of  unusual  life  and  hope,  when  the  gay 
colors  of  progress  and  festivity  adorned  her  halls  and 
when  the  outside  world  participated  in  her  triumph.  Per- 
haps the  most  distinguished  of  these  festive  occasions  was 
celebrated  on  January  25,  1824.  On  that  day  Archbishop 
Mare"chal,  who  some  time  before  had  paid  a  visit  to  the 
Holy  Father  and  asked  him  to  make  his  seminary  a  uni- 
versity, acting  as  the  representative  of  Pius  VIII,  sol- 
emnly conferred  on  St.  Mary's  Seminary  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  a  university.  The  celebration  took  place 
in  the  cathedral,  and  was  graced  not  only  by  the  presence 
of  the  diocesan  clergy  and  the  students  of  the  seminary, 
but  also  by  many  citizens,  Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  and 
by  the  entire  body  of  the  students  of  St.  Mary's  College. 

Various  congratulatory  addresses  were  delivered,  among 
them  one  in  Latin  by  a  senior  of  the  college  which  at- 
tracted much  attention  on  account  of  its  taste  and  schol- 
arly diction.  The  young  orator  was  Samuel  Eccleston, 
destined  later  to  become  Archbishop  of  Baltimore.  The 
new  university  without  delay  exercised  its  rights  and 
conferred  the  doctorate  of  theology  on  the  vicar-general  of 
the  diocese,  later  Archbishop  Whitfield;  on  M.  Deluol, 
professor  at  the  seminary,  and  on  M.  Damphoux,  presi- 
dent of  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore.  The  following 
year  all  the  seminary  took  part  in  the  public  Fourth  of 
July  celebration,  at  which  the  Kev.  Mr.  Eccleston,  only 
lately  ordained,  had  been  invited  to  say  the  opening 
prayer. 

Notwithstanding  the  constitutional  modesty  of  the  Sul- 
pician  Fathers,  therefore,  their  merits  had  been  appre- 
ciated not  only  at  Rome,  but  also  by  the  non-Catholics  in 
their  new  country.  No  doubt,  no  one  was  more  delighted 


M.  ANTOINE  GARNIER. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    JOHN    MARY    TE88IER          89 

•with  the  progress  of  the  seminary  than  the  venerable  su- 
perior, M.  Tessier.  St.  Mary's  is  still  in  possession  of  his 
"Epoques  du  Seminaire  de  Baltimore,"  and  of  his  diary 
recounting  the  incidents  in  its  history  that  he  thought  note- 
worthy. It  is  not  difficult  to  sympathize  with  the  joyous 
notes  which  we  meet  in  its  pages. 

No  doubt  the  administration  of  M.  Tessier,  so  far  as 
the  government  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  goes,  was  emi- 
nently peaceful  and  prosperous.  But  in  that  capacity  he 
had  also  the  supervision  of  the  other  Sulpician  institu- 
tions which  had  sprung  up  since  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury, that  is  to  say,  of  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  and, 
for  several  years  at  least,  of  Mount  St.  Mary's  College, 
Emmitsburg.  The  history  of  these  institutions  we  shall 
give  more  fully  in  subsequent  chapters.  Here  it  will  suffice 
to  say  that  the  financial  affairs  of  these  institutions  had 
given  much  care  and  anxiety  to  the  gentle  superior,  whose 
years  had  now  reached  the  traditional  three  score  and  ten. 

The  superior-general  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  at 
this  time  was  M.  Gamier,  who  had  himself  been  a  member 
of  St.  Mary's  faculty  and  who  had  always  retained  a 
warm  interest  in  the  American  institution,  where  he  had 
spent  some  dozen  or  more  very  happy  years.  To  him  M. 
Tessier  confided  these  difficulties,  and  he  besought  the 
superior-general  to  come  in  person  to  Baltimore  in  order 
to  regulate  matters.  This  was  in  the  year  1828  when,  un- 
der Charles  X,  things  were  shaping  themselves  in  France 
for  the  July  Revolution  of  1830.  Under  the  circumstances, 
M.  Gamier  could  not  think  of  leaving  Paris,  but  he  felt 
that  M.  Tessier's  request  should  not  be  entirely  ignored- 
He  therefore  sent  a  representative  in  the  person  of  M.  Car- 
riere,  who  arrived  in  Baltimore  in  1829,  and  immediately 
set  about  investigating  the  condition  of  the  Sulpician  Soci- 
ety in  the  United  States.  This  enabled  M.  Tessier  to  trans- 
fer his  office  into  the  hands  of  the  visitor.  When,  on  Octo- 


90  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

her  4,  1829,  the  first  Provincial  Council  of  Baltimore  was 
opened,  M.  Tessier  was  one  of  its  most  prominent  members, 
not  as  superior  of  St.  Mary's,  but  as  its  dean. 

As  such  the  burden  of  his  work  as  superior  was  taken 
from  his    shoulders,   and  we  find  him  thereafter  fre- 
quently accompanying  Archbishop  Whitfield  on  his  visi- 
tations.   In  fact,  as  the  archbishop's  vicar-general,  he  took 
part  in  the  Synod  of  Baltimore  (1831),  where  he  was  one 
of  the  prominent  orators,  and  accompanied  the  prelate 
in  his  visitation  of  Kichmond.    When  his  duties  as  vicar- 
general  did  not  call  him  away  from  Baltimore,  he  resided 
at  the  seminary  as  before  and  continued  his  pastoral  work 
in  connection  with  the  seminary  chapel.    He  was  a  popu- 
lar confessor  and  spiritual  director ;  tradition  has  it  that 
he  had  more  than  two  hundred  regular  penitents,  many  of 
them  colored,  whom  he  had  served  for  more  than  thirty- 
one  years.    Thus  after  his  retirement  he  led  an  active  and 
useful  life  at  his  old  home,  popular  both  inside  and  out- 
side of  the  seminary. 

On  March  16,  1840,  M.  Tessier  was  seized  by  a  fever, 
which  forbade  his  saying  his  Mass.  The  following  day, 
St.  Patrick's  feast,  Father  Deluol,  who  had  attended  him 
from  the  beginning  of  his  illness,  found  his  condition 
much  worse.  Two  days  later,  on  St.  Joseph's  day,  he 
peacefully  passed  away,  after  receiving  all  the  consola- 
tions of  religion  at  the  hands  of  Father  Deluol.  The 
mourning  in  the  seminary,  the  college,  and  in  fact  in  the 
entire  city,  was  general,  and  the  funeral  ceremonies  were 
most  solemn.  Archbishop  Eccleston  sang  the  Requiem, 
and  Father  Deluol  in  his  funeral  oration  proclaimed 
the  many  virtues  of  the  departed  Sulpician  and  the  serv- 
ices he  had  rendered  to  St.  Sulpice,  to  the  archdiocese, 
and  to  the  Church. 


CHAPTER  V 
ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830 

The  gentlemen  sent  to  Baltimore  by  M.  Emery  in  1791 
were,  in  accordance  with  the  primary  aim  of  the  Society 
of  St.  Sulpice,  intended  to  found  and  direct  a  clerical 
seminary.  On  their  arrival  at  Baltimore  they  supplied 
the  personnel  needed  for  such  a  seminary,  the  buildings, 
and  the  outfit,  but  they  could  not  provide  the  students. 
Accordingly,  the  Sulpicians  who  came  to  the  United  States 
in  1792  were  subsequently,  with  M.  Emery's  con- 
sent, sent  to  work  on  the  American  missions  both  east 
and  west.  In  fact,  M.  Emery  had  no  choice,  for  these 
were  the  days  of  the  bloody  Terror.  Eighteen  men  of 
his  small  Society  had  been  guillotined  or  otherwise  put  to 
death.  Belgium  and  Western  Germany  were  threatened 
with  invasion  by  the  sans  culottes;  Spain  was  swarming 
with  exiled  French  priests  and  the  hospitality  of  Eng- 
land, a  Protestant  country,  was  utilized  to  the  utmost. 
The  United  States  afforded  a  vast  field  for  clerical  work. 
But  only  a  few  men  could  be  of  use  for  the  purpose  of 
ecclesiastical  education.  Priests  were  needed,  but  candi- 
dates were  lacking.  Bishop  Carroll  had  established 
Georgetown  College  in  1789,  partly  with  a  view  to  supply- 
ing candidates  for  the  ministry.  But  the  Catholics  of 
the  United  States  were  few  and,  therefore,  but  few  stu- 
dents could  be  expected  at  Georgetown  and  very  few  semi- 
nary students  could  be  looked  for  from  that  college.  In- 
deed, the  pressing  need  of  instructors  at  Georgetown  ab- 
sorbed those  of  its  graduates  who  had  clerical  aspirations. 

91 


92  THE    SULPICIANS   IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

If  Georgetown  could  furnish  no  clerical  students, 
where  were  they  to  come  from?  The  position  was  such 
as  necessarily  to  suggest  self-help  to  the  Sulpicians.  They 
must  provide  their  own  students  "by  providing  the  pre- 
paratory institutions  of  higher  education.  These  might 
be  of  two  kinds:  either  such  as  trained  only  aspirants 
to  the  priesthood,  that  is  to  say,  lower  seminaries,  or 
such  as  gave  higher  education  in  general.  Students 
of  the  former  kind  are  usually  supported  by  the  dioce- 
san authorities,  while  students  of  the  latter  sort  support 
or  at  least  contribute  to  the  support  of  their  col- 
leges or  academies.  In  1791,  and  as  we  shall  see  for  a 
long  time  after,  neither  the  bishop  nor  the  Sulpicians  had 
the  pecuniary  means  to  support  a  lower  seminary.  There 
were  no  endowments  extant  nor  any  to  be  expected.  The 
few  American  Catholics  were  not  overburdened  with 
wealth  and  there  were  endless  appeals  to  them  to  pro- 
vide for  their  most  pressing  spiritual  needs.  If  the  Sul- 
picians were  to  make  an  effort  to  supply  the  students  for 
their  seminary  it  must  be  by  creating  self-supporting  in- 
stitutions, that  is  to  say,  colleges  or  academies  whose  stu- 
dents paid  for  their  own  tuition.  This  meant  that  the 
colleges  must  be  open  not  only  to  future  students  of  the- 
ology, but  to  students  who  sought  higher  education  for 
any  purpose.  To  have  any  seminary  at  all,  the  majority 
of  the  Sulpicians  in  Baltimore  saw  before  long  that  they 
must  establish  general  colleges  or  academies.  To  refuse 
to  do  so  would  be  to  pour  out  the  baby  with  the  bath. 
Only  reluctantly  did  they  open  their  eyes  to  this  necessity. 

If  the  Sulpicians  hesitated  on  principle  to  open  colleges, 
Bishop  Carroll,  on  grounds  of  expediency,  did  not  favor 
their  doing  so.  His  Georgetown  College  was  as  yet  a  fee- 
ble infant,  and  its  supply  of  food  was  not  too  plentiful. 
Any  further  colleges  would  threaten  to  deprive  it  of  some 
of  its  needed  nourishment,  so  both  the  bishop  and  the  Sul- 


ST.  MAST'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  93 

picians,  especially  M.  Emery,  shrank  from  making  more 
foundations.  But  necessity  knows  no  law.  The  students 
of  St.  Mary's,  few  from  the  beginning,  grew  less  and  less, 
and  the  seminary  which  was  expected  to  supply  a  nation 
with  priests  consisted  of  empty  halls.  The  Sulpicians 
at  first  made  timid  experiments.  Only  a  year  or  two 
after  their  arrival  at  Baltimore,  when  they  had  overcome 
to  some  extent  their  ignorance  of  the  English  language, 
they  gathered  about  them  some  boys  living  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  seminary  and  began  to  instruct  them  in  the 
rudiments  of  academic  learning,  but  it  soon  became  ap- 
parent that  without  a  systematic  plan  nothing  could  be 
achieved. 

MM.  Flaget  and  Richard  tried  what  could  be  done 
among  the  French  in  the  Middle  West.  Failure  was  the 
result.  About  1796  or  1797  circumstances  suggested  the 
possibility  of  employing  the  surplus  of  the  French  Sul- 
picians in  another  part  of  America.  These  hopes  were 
held  out  from  the  island  of  Cuba,  whither  a  member  of 
the  Society,  M.  Babad,  had  found  his  way  from  Spain, 
having  become  convinced  that  that  country  offered  no 
hope  of  useful  activity  to  the  exiled  members  of  his  So- 
ciety. At  Havana  things  looked  smiling  and  bright.  He 
was  warmly  received  by  many  of  the  prominent  colonial 
families,  who  stood  ready  to  entrust  their  children  to  him 
and  his  confreres. 

Accordingly  he  wrote  of  his  prospects  to  M.  Nagot  and 
invited  him  to  send  to  Havana  some  of  the  members  of 
St.  Sulpice  who  could  be  spared  from  the  United  States. 
At  the  time,  M.  Nagot  foresaw  that  M.  Dubourg  and 
M.  Flaget,  the  former  of  whom  had  been  president  of 
Georgetown  since  1796,  and  the  latter  vice-president, 
would  be  open  for  other  work  in  1798.  Accordingly  he 
communicated  to  them  the  news  of  M.  Babad's  plans  at 
Havana  and  left  them  free  to  go  to  Cuba  on  a  reconnois- 


94  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

sance.  Both  men  were  ready  to  join  M.  Babad  in  Cuba 
and  examine  the  prospects. 

We  must  here  make  our  readers  acquainted  with  the 
Eev.  M.  Dubourg,  who  was  the  founder  of  St.  Mary's 
College.  Louis  William  Valentine  Dubourg  was  born  at 
Cap  Frangois  in  the  island  of  San  Domingo  in  1766. 
When  he  grew  up  he  was  sent  to  France  for  his  education, 
and  having  determined  to  devote  himself  to  the  service 
of  the  Church,  he  entered  the  lower  seminary  connected 
with  St.  Sulpice.  After  his  ordination,  he  was,  by  M. 
Nagot's  advice,  placed  in  charge  of  the  classical  school  at 
Issy.  There  during  the  early  days  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution his  life  was  threatened  and  he  fled  to  Spain.  But 
as  in  the  case  of  M.  Babad,  Spain  soon  proved  an  un- 
congenial place  of  refuge.  Accordingly,  M.  Dubourg 
turned  his  eyes  westward,  and  in  1794  reached  the  United 
States  as  a  secular  priest.  He  was  received  with  open 
arms,  not  only  by  Bishop  Carroll,  but  also  by  his  French 
fellow-exiles,  the  Sulpicians  of  St.  Mary's.  He  naturally 
felt  himself  drawn  toward  them,  and  in  1795  M.  Nagot  re- 
ceived him  into  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  M.  Dubourg 
from  the  first  made  a  most  favorable  impression  on  Bishop 
Carroll,  so  that  only  two  years  after  his  arrival  in  Balti- 
more the  bishop  confided  to  him  the  presidency  of  his 
favorite  institution,  the  College  of  Georgetown,  where  M. 
Flaget,  later  first  Bishop  of  Bardstown,  Ky.,  was  his 
lieutenant  as  vice-president. 

M.  Dubourg  was  an  attractive  personality.  His  man- 
ners were  most  sympathetic.  He  was  a  gifted  orator  and 
a  good  scholar,  and  during  his  administration  of  George- 
town College  there  was  a  marked  increase  in  the  number 
of  students.  But  for  reasons  unknown  to  us  he  was  with- 
drawn from  Georgetown  in  1798,  and  then  it  was  that,  in 
accordance  with  M.  Nagot's  suggestions,  he  resolved  with 
M.  Flaget  to  make  an  attempt  to  establish  a  college  at 


BT.  MAST'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  95 

Havana.  The  prospects  seemed  bright,  but  suddenly  the 
sky  became  overclouded.  The  Sulpicians  were  French- 
men, and  the  Spanish  Government,  which  habitually  ex- 
cluded even  native  Cubans  from  any  places  of  trust  in  the 
island,  refused  to  permit  the  French  priests  to  found  a 
college  in  Havana.  M.  Dubourg,  therefore,  prepared  to 
return  to  Baltimore,  but  not  before  he  had  arranged,  both 
in  Havana  and  in  Baltimore,  to  take  with  him  to  the  lat- 
ter place  a  number  of  the  Cuban  youth  who  were  to  have 
become  students  of  the  Sulpician  College  in  Havana. 

Without  delay,  therefore,  in  1799,  M.  Dubourg  re- 
turned to  the  United  States  with  his  charges  and  opened 
his  school  with  four  students,  this  number  being  soon  in- 
creased by  the  children  of  San  Domingo  exiles.  M.  Flaget 
was  then  struggling  with  an  attack  of  yellow  fever  and  had 
to  be  left  behind.  In  fact,  he  did  not  return  to  Baltimore 
until  1801,  when  he  brought  with  him  three  young  Cubans, 
who  became  students  of  the  new  Baltimore  academy. 
The  boys  brought  to  Baltimore  by  M.  Dubourg  were 
lodged  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  which  afforded  abundant 
room  for  them. 

Their  arrival  did  not  wholly  please  Bishop  Carroll. 
Notwithstanding  the  more  promising  aspect  of  the  future 
of  Georgetown  College,  it  was  still  a  very  weak  plant 
What  would  be  its  fate  if  the  Sulpicians  established  a 
rival  college  at  Baltimore?  Experience  could  not  en- 
lighten him  as  to  the  answer,  and  the  good  bishop  was  not 
a  little  alarmed.  However,  the  Sulpicians  had  been  at 
considerable  expense  in  fetching  and  housing  the  Cubans. 
They  had  lost  the  property  at  first  assigned  to  them  at 
Bohemia,  and  invested  the  greatest  part  of  their  French 
savings  in  the  Baltimore  property.  Manifestly  they  must 
be  treated  with  consideration  and  fairness.  So  the  prel- 
ate agreed  to  the  temporary  establishment  of  the  new 
academy.  It  was  made  a  condition,  however,  that  no 


96  THE    STJLPICIANS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

American  students  should  be  admitted,  and  that  even  the 
number  of  West  Indians  should  be  limited.  According 
to  the  "Memorial  Volume"  of  St.  Mary's,  Bishop  Carroll 
at  first  allowed  only  twelve  students  to  be  admitted  to  the 
academy,  but  later  extended  this  number  to  twenty-five. 

This  arrangement  proved  satisfactory  for  the  time  be- 
ing. A  goodly  number  of  boys  came  in  from  the  West  In- 
dies. M.  Flaget,  in  1801,  brought  back  three  from  Cuba, 
and  others  came  both  before  and  after.  If  we  may 
trust  the  biographer  of  Bishop  Flaget  in  "Appleton's  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary,"  who  declares  that  the  Balti- 
more academy  was  crowded  with  West  Indians,  the  num- 
ber of  scholars  at  the  academy  must  have  been  quite 
large.  We  may  infer  this  also  from  the  fact  that  when 
the  Spanish  Government  in  1803  required  the  return  of 
the  students  to  Havana,  it  was  necessary  to  send  a  man- 
of-war  for  them.  The  same  conclusion  follows  from  the 
fact  that  many  years  afterward,  in  1812  and  in  1817, 
when  the  college  was  in  financial  difficulties,  M.  Harent 
was  sent  to  the  West  Indies  and  collected  rather  a  large 
amount  of  money  due  the  Baltimore  Sulpicians  for  un- 
paid fees. 

Meantime,  the  existence  of  the  budding  academy  was 
threatened  from  another  quarter.  M.  Emery,  as  appears 
from  his  letter  of  August  9,  1800  (Gosselin,  vol.  ii,  p. 
102),  in  view  of  the  bishop's  objections  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Baltimore  academy,  withdrew  whatever  con- 
sent he  had  given  to  its  foundation.  At  the  same  time 
he  seems  to  have  regarded  the  bishop's  opposition  to  a 
Sulpician  academy  as  a  bar  to  any  plan  of  self-help  on 
the  part  of  his  Society,  and  therefore  as  a  kind  of  sen- 
tence of  death  to  the  seminary  itself.  Affairs  had  taken 
a  turn  favorable  to  the  Church  in  France,  and  M.  Emery 
foresaw  that  he  could  usefully  employ  in  the  mother  coun- 
try all  the  men  of  his  Society.  In  1801,  therefore,  we 


ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  97 

find  him  issuing  a  recall  to  the  American  Sulpicians, 
against  which  the  bishop  remonstrated  most  earnestly. 
The  correspondence  between  Bishop  Carroll  and  M.  Emery 
grew  warmer  and  warmer,  while  the  position  in  Baltimore 
became  more  and  more  unpleasant.  Buildings  had  been 
put  up  for  the  academy  by  M.  Dubourg,  his  Cuban  pro- 
teges having  been  quartered  in  the  seminary  building,  and 
additional  accommodation  of  a  temporary  character  pro- 
vided on  the  seminary  grounds.  But  M.  Dubourg  was 
not  a  man  content  with  half  measures.  He  had  excellent 
taste,  and  the  new  edifice  was  spoken  of  with  admiration, 
though  on  the  other  side  there  were  not  lacking  persons 
who  criticized  his  lavishness.  M.  Emery  seems  to  have 
shared  the  views  of  these  critics,  while  Bishop  Carroll  re- 
garded M.  Dubourg's  tendency  to  couple  the  ornamental 
with  the  useful  as  a  constitutional  and  quite  pardonable 
foible. 

When  these  new  buildings  were  completed,  at  con- 
siderable expense,  it  was  announced  that  the  academy  was 
about  to  lose  all,  or  a  greater  part,  of  its  students.  The 
Spanish  Government  had  ordered  the  West  Indian  boys 
to  leave  Baltimore  without  delay.  This  was  in  1803. 
But  the  darkest  hour  of  the  night  is  that  immediately 
preceding  the  dawn.  So  it  proved  in  this  case.  We  have 
seen  how  M.  Emery  accepted  the  advice  of  Pope  Pius  VTI 
and  abandoned  all  thought  of  withdrawing  his  Society 
from  the  United  States.  About  the  same  time  Bishop 
Carroll  agreed  to  open  the  Sulpician  academy  to  American 
students.  "In  the  fall  of  1803,"  says  the  "Memorial  Vol- 
ume," "it  was  announced  that  the  doors  of  St.  Mary's 
College  would  be  open  to  all  American  students,  day  schol- 
ars or  boarders,  without  distinction  of  creed.  Many  boys 
at  once  flocked  to  the  institution.  .  .  .  The  number  of 
pupils  in  1806  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  six.  Addi- 


98  THE    SULPICIANS    II*    THE    UNITED   STATES 

tional  buildings  had  then  been  erected  and  others  were 
in  progress." 

But  this  was  not  all.  Owing  to  the  manifest  merits  of 
the  Sulpician  academy,  it  had  gained  for  itself  not  only 
the  hearts  of  the  Baltimoreans  and  Marylanders,  both 
Catholic  and  Protestant ;  it  had  likewise  gained  the  favor 
of  the  governor  and  Legislature  of  the  State. 

It  seems  proper  here  to  glance  at  the  condition  of  higher 
education  in  Maryland  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  order  to  realize  the  position  of  the  new  Sul- 
pician college  among  its  fellow-institutions.  This  will 
enable  us  also  to  appreciate  the  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages with  which  it  had  to  contend  and  the  causes  of 
its  rapid  progress.  In  drawing  this  picture,  we  shall  take 
as  our  guide  Dr.  Bernard  C.  Steiner's  "History  of  Edu- 
cation in  Maryland,"  published  by  the  United  States  Bu- 
reau of  Education  in  1894.  The  chapters  from  which 
we  shall  draw  chiefly  were  written  by  Basil  Sollers. 

The  physical  configuration  of  the  State  of  Maryland 
did  not  favor  the  spread  of  learning  in  colonial  times. 
The  land  is  too  much  cut  up  by  hills  and  streams,  and 
the  population  was  too  thin  and  sparse  to  make  it  possible 
to  find  sites  fit  to  be  centers  of  school  activity.  Even  dis- 
trict schools  for  elementary  education  were  hardly  feasi- 
ble, for  a  district  containing  enough  children  to  warrant 
the  opening  of  a  common  school  assumed  the  proportions 
of  a  county.  In  fact,  many  of  the  more  prosperous  col- 
onists kept  tutors  or  governors  for  their  children,  while 
the  less  fortunate  but  more  zealous  taught  their  children 
themselves. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  State  early  made  efforts  to 
establish  county  schools,  but  these  efforts  frequently  re- 
sulted in  paper  institutions  of  quite  formidable  propor- 
tions. While  little  is  said  of  elementary  learning,  the 
learning  called  for  was  usually  instruction  in  moral  phi- 


ST.  MAEY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  99 

losophy,  the  learned  languages,  and  mathematics,  the  lat- 
ter being  generally  entrusted  to  the  writing-teacher.  This 
description  fits  most  of  the  county  schools  which  were 
created  by  acts  of  the  Assembly  prior  to  the  War  of  In- 
dependence. Even  at  the  end  of  the  war,  which  left  the 
State  coffers  empty  and  the  people's  means  slim,  there  was 
no  immediate  change  for  the  better.  The  Assembly  was 
busy  in  grinding  out  educational  laws.  Unfortunately 
it  was  kept  so  busy  that  it  is  quite  apparent  that  as  these 
laws  did  not  execute  themselves,  they  died  a  natural  death 
and  each  Assembly  had  to  repeat  the  benevolent  legisla- 
tion of  its  predecessor. 

However,  from  all  the  medley  of  educational  legislation 
it  appears  that  two  institutions  soon  outstripped  their 
rivals  and  acquired  considerable  distinction.  The  first  of 
these  was  Washington  College,  located  at  Chestertown,  on 
the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland.  It  was  the  creation  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  who  came  to  Chestertown  in 
1780,  formed  a  class  and  combined  it  with  the  Kent 
County  School  in  1782.  The  resulting  institution  had 
one  hundred  and  forty  scholars.  It  was  by  resolution 
of  the  Assembly  duly  created  a  college.  Its  faculty  con- 
sisted of  a  president,  a  vice-president,  and  professors  of 
natural  philosophy  and  logic.  Besides  these  three  men 
of  learning,  whose  names  are  given,  two  tutors  and  a 
French  teacher  are  spoken  of.  The  name  of  only  one  of 
these  can  be  found;  he  had  been  the  principal  of  the 
Kent  County  School. 

The  laurels  gained  by  Washington  College  on  the  east- 
ern shore,  made  a  great  impression  on  the  people  of  the 
western  shore.  These  felt  them  as  a  challenge,  which  was 
duly  accepted.  In  1784,  the  Annapolis  School,  an  insti- 
tution similar  to  the  Kent  County  School,  was  duly  erected 
by  law  into  St.  John's  College,  It  seems  not  to  have  been 
organized  until  1789.  But  this  did  not  prevent  the  Mary- 


100  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

land  Assembly  of  1785  from  combining  St.  John's  Col- 
lege and  Washington  College  into  the  first  University  of 
Maryland.  When  St.  John's  was  organized,  on  August 
11,  1789,  its  board  of  visitors  and  governors,  presided 
over  by  Bishop  Carroll,  elected  Dr.  John  McDowell  pro- 
fessor of  mathematics  and  the  Rev.  Ealph  Higginbotham 
professor  of  languages.  The  former  became  principal 
immediately  after  the  formal  opening  of  the  college,  on 
November  11,  1789,  on  which  occasion  Charles  Carroll  of 
Carrollton,  who  was  one  of  the  visitors  and  governors, 
was  present. 

Washington  College  always  remained  a  modest  insti- 
tution of  learning.  The  number  of  its  students  did  not 
grow  markedly.  Ten  years  after  its  foundation  the  Due 
de  la  Rochefoucauld  Liancourt  writes  of  St.  John's :  "The 
college  is  another  very  considerable  building.  It  has  an 
endowment  of  $5,000,  raised  by  certain  duties  of  the 
State,  such  as  licenses,  fines,  etc.,  but  of  the  west  part  of 
Maryland  only.  There  are  a  hundred  scholars  there,  and 
it  is  said  that  the  masters  of  it  are  very  good.  The  Eng- 
lish, the  learned  languages,  French,  mathematics  as  far  as 
astronomy,  some  philosophy,  and  some  common  law  are 
taught  there." 

Of  Washington  College  at  the  same  time  (1796),  the 
same  Due  de  la  Rochefoucauld  Liancourt  says : l  "The 
college  building  is  in  a  deplorable  state  of  decay,  although 
it  is  not  yet  finished.  There  is  no  glass  in  any  of  the  win- 
dows ;  the  walls  have  fallen  down  in  many  places  and  the 
doors  are  without  steps.  Yet  this  is  the  second  college 
of  the  State,  in  which  there  are  only  two.  It  maintains 
a  president  and  three  masters;  the  number  of  scholars, 
however,  is  not  more  than  forty  or  fifty,  though  for  $16 
all  the  branches  of  learning  which  are  taught  may  be  ac- 
quired. Boarders  pay  $80  or  $90  for  their  board.  Twelve 

i  "Travels  through  North  America."  second  edition,  vol.  iii,  pp.  548-550, 
as  reported  in  Steiner's  "History  of  Education  in  Maryland. 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  101 

or  fifteen  hundred  dollars  have  already  been  expended 
upon  this  building.  It  is  constructed  on  a  plan  large 
enough  to  receive  five  hundred  students.  The  clergy- 
man of  the  place  received  $300  from  his  parish  and  $800 
and  a  residence  as  president  of  the  college." 

Washington  and  St.  John's  colleges  maintained  a  more 
or  less  precarious  existence  as  the  first  University  of 
Maryland  until  1805.  Their  halls  were  never  crowded. 
But  St.  John's  College  at  least  included  among  its  grad- 
uates and  its  students  a  number  of  men  who  became  dis- 
tinguished in  the  history  of  the  State  and  even  of  the 
Union.  Both  colleges,  as  the  Due  de  la  Rochefoucauld 
states,  received  at  times  subsidies  from  the  Maryland  As- 
sembly, but  these  subsidies  were  mere  trifles  when  com- 
pared with  the  costs  of  a  modern  college.  The  University 
of  Maryland  dragged  on  its  nominal  existence  until  1805, 
when  the  Legislature  "caused  the  suspension  of  St.  John's 
College  by  withdrawing  the  State  grant  This  caused 
the  death  of  the  old  university,  and  in  1812,  though  the 
old  charter  had  never  been  repealed,  the  old  institution 
was  so  thoroughly  extinct  that  the  Legislature  chartered 
a  new  University  of  Maryland."  l 

At  the  time,  therefore,  when  the  Maryland  Assembly 
created  St.  Mary's  College  in  1806,  it  was  the  only  active 
collegiate  institution  in  the  State.  What  was  the  nature 
and  activity  of  the  contemporary  colleges  in  Maryland 
appears  sufficiently  from  the  scanty  account  we  have  given 
of  them.  Indeed,  the  records  which  modern  investigators 
have  been  able  to  find  are  very  imperfect.  That  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Maryland  colleges  was  very  simple  can 
hardly  be  questioned.  The  curriculum  usually  included 
some  Latin  and  Greek,  some  algebra  and  geometry,  with 
lectures  on  ethical  and  sometimes  religious  subjects.  That 
the  very  simplicity  was  in  some  respects  an  advantage  ap- 

1  Steiner,  "History  of  Education  in  Maryland,"  p.  70. 


102  THE    SULPICIAN3    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

pears  from  the  distinction  gained  by  so  many  of  their 
alumni.  No  doubt,  a  few  of  the  larger  New  England 
colleges  may  have  been  in  a  more  developed  condition 
than  the  Maryland  institutions.  But  it  is  hardly  rash  to 
assume  that  these,  as  they  claimed,  were  the  peers  of  many 
of  the  American  colleges.  Our  picture  of  these  institu- 
tions, imperfect  though  it  be,  reveals  enough  of  the  con- 
ditions of  higher  education  to  enable  the  reader  to  form 
a  just  estimate  of  the  work  of  St.  Mary's  College,  to 
which  we  now  return. 

When  in  1803  the  doors  of  the  Sulpician  academy  of 
Baltimore  were  thrown  open  to  American  students,  it 
was  expressly  stated  that  there  would  be  no  distinction 
of  creed.  The  perusal  of  M.  Emery's  correspondence  con- 
vinces us  that  this  policy  was  by  no  means  in  harmony 
with  his  idea  of  a  Sulpician  institution,  the  project  of 
an  academy  being  sufficiently  at  variance  with  his  ideals, 
but  his  home  was  thousands  of  miles  from  Baltimore, 
and  he  had  not  the  means  of  judging  what  was  required 
by  the  situation. 

However,  the  circumstances  at  Baltimore  were  such  that 
if  the  Sulpicians  were  to  have  a  college  at  Baltimore  at 
all,  it  must  admit  non-Catholic  students.  Baltimore  was 
then  a  small  town,  whose  charter  was  only  ten  years  old. 
In  1800  the  entire  number  of  its  inhabitants  was  26,000. 
The  number  of  Catholics  able  to  pay  for  the  collegiate  edu- 
cation of  their  children  was  very  small.  In  those  days, 
it  is  true,  professors  were  cheap,  and  $800  secured  the 
services  of  a  college  president,  and  the  college  students 
paid  only  $16  a  year,  or  with  board  $80.  The  alternative 
was,  either  admit  non-Catholic  students,  or  have  no  col- 
lege at  all. 

Besides,  the  Catholics  would  prefer  to  send  their  boys 
to  a  Catholic  college  where  Protestant  boys  were  tolerated, 
for  Catholics  had  been  treated  with  no  little  consideration 


ST.  MAEY'S  COLLFGE,  1805-1830  103 

when  St.  John's  College  was  founded,  which  was,  of 
course,  on  paper,  several  years  before  the  establishment  of 
Georgetown  College.  Bishop  Carroll  was  not  only  a  trus- 
tee of  the  secular  college,  but  at  one  time  chairman  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees,  on  which  board  we  find  the  names 
of  Nicholas  Carroll,  and  of  the  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton.  Though 
the  feeling  of  universal  toleration  was  neither  as  general 
nor  as  strong  as  it  is  to-day,  the  philosophic  and  basic  prin- 
ciples of  Catholics  and  of  other  Christian  denominations 
more  nearly  approached  each  other  than  they  do  at  the 
present  time.  This  can  be  proved  in  a  striking  way  from 
the  first  commencement  program  of  Washington  College, 
held  Wednesday,  May  14,  1783: 

"Dr.  Smith  opened  the  exercises  of  the  day  with  prayer, 
afterward  with  a  Latin  oration  to  the  learned  and  collegi- 
ate part  of  the  audience,  as  custom  seems  to  have  required. 
The  candidates  then  proceeded  with  the  public  exercises,  as 
follows:      (1)    A  Latin  salutatory  oration  by  Mr.  John 
Scott.     (2)  An  oration  in  French  by  Mr.  James  Scott. 
(3)  A  Latin  syllogistic  dispute:  'Num  ceternitas  pcenarum 
contradicit  divinis  attributis?'     Respondent,  Mr.  Charles 
Smith;  opponents,  Messrs.  William  Barrel  and  William 
Bordley.      (4)   An  English  forensic  dispute:     'Whether 
the  state  of  nature  be  a  state  of  war  ?'    The  speakers  were 
Messrs.  John  Scott,  William  Barrel,  William  Bordley  and 
James  Scott.      (5)    Degrees  were  conferred  as  follows: 
Upon  Messrs.  Charles  Smith,  James  Scott,  John  Scott, 
William  Bordley,    and  William   Barrel,   the  degrees  of 
bachelor  of  arts ;  and  upon  Samuel  Kerr,  one  of  the  tutors 
in  the  grammar  school,  honorary  A.B.,  and  upon  Mr.  Colin 
Ferguson  and  Mr.  Samuel  Armor,  professors  in  the  col- 
lege, the  honorary  degree  of  A.M.   (Mr.  Armor  was  al- 
ready an  A.M.  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia).     (6)  An 


104  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

English  valedictory  oration,1  which  concluded  with  a  strik- 
ing and  prophetic  poem  on  the  progresses  of  the  sciences 
and  the  growing  glory  of  America,  hy  Mr.  Charles  Smith. 
(7)  The  principal  closed  the  exercises  with  a  pathetic 
charge  to  the  graduates  respecting  their  future  conduct  in 
life,  and  what  was  expected  of  them  as  the  eldest  sons  of 
this  rising  seminary."  2 

From  all  this  it  follows  that  when  M.  Dubourg,  with  the 
consent  of  MM.  Nagot  and  Emery,  embarked  on  the 
scheme  of  founding  an  academy  at  Baltimore  to  be  opened 
not  only  to  future  priests  but  to  Catholic  and  Protestant 
students  generally,  he  did  so  because  he  had  no  other 
choice.  They  must  make  the  venture  or  withdraw  from 
the  educational  field  altogether.  M.  Dubourg  set  to  work 
with  skill  and  vigor.  His  success  proves  that  he  had  the 
loyal  support  of  Bishop  Carroll,  and  that  the  Catholics 
of  Maryland  had  great  influence  with  both  the  governor 
and  the  Legislature.  St.  Mary's  College  in  1805  received 
its  charter  endowing  it  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
belonging  to  similar  institutions  in  the  United  States  or 
in  foreign  countries. 

Not  satisfied  with  this,  the  General  Assembly  in  1806' 
granted  to  the  newly  chartered  college  the  privilege  of 
holding  a  state  lottery,  the  proceeds  of  which,  not  to  ex- 
ceed $40,000,  were  to  be  expended  for  the  benefit  of  the 
new  college.  It  was  enacted  at  the  same  time  that  the 
trustees  of  St.  Mary's  College  were  to  guarantee  its  main- 
tenance for  at  least  thirty  years.  This  clause,  at  first 
sight  somewhat  mysterious,  appears  natural  enough  when 
we  bear  in  mind  that  the  first  Maryland  University  had 
existed  less  than  twenty  years.  It  should  likewise  be 
remarked  that  the  raising  of  monies  by  state  lotteries  waa 

oration  was  printed  in  full  In  the  "Maryland  Journal"  for  July 


8    TT83 
'aSteiner,  "History  of  Education  in  Maryland,"  p.  77. 


ST.  MAET'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  105 

not  an  uncommon  expedient  at  this  time  in  Maryland.1 
The  records  we  possess  of  the  beginnings  of  St.  Mary's 
College  are  naturally  somewhat  scanty,  but  they  are  nev- 
ertheless well  worth  studying.  Let  us  bear  in  mind  that 
prior  to  1805  it  existed  as  a  mere  academy  and  chiefly  as 
an  academy  for  West  Indian  boys.  The  number  of  stu- 
dents was  limited  to  a  dozen  or  at  most  twenty-five.  To 
teach  this  little  flock,  besides  the  president,  M.  Dubourg, 
occupied  the  time  and  the  efforts  of  three  priests  and  one 
layman,  and  the  priests  were  all  men  of  distinction.  They 
included,  besides  the  future  Bishop  of  New  Orleans,  Du- 
bourg, the  future  Bishop  of  Bardstown,  Flaget,  the  fu- 
ture head  of  the  seminary,  M.  Tessier,  and  M.  Babad, 
who  for  twenty  years  or  more  taught  Spanish  and  was, 
so  to  say,  the  patron  of  the  Spanish-American  boys.  The 
laymen,  MM.  Guillemin  and  Ayme,  who  taught  each  for 
one  year  only,  were  Frenchmen,  as  were  all  the  Sulpi- 
cians,  which  makes  it  likely  that  a  large  percentage  of  the 
students  were  French  West  Indians.  This  is  confirmed 
by  the  names  of  the  students  which  have  been  preserved, 
such  as  Dubourg,  Pagot,  La  Eeintrie,  Meynadier,  Le 
Batard,  Cottineau,  De  Mun,  Basile,  and  so  forth.2 

The  year  1803  brings  us  a  new  order  of  things.  Such 
names  as  O'Brian,  Lipp,  Clark,  Wilson,  Burns,  Brent, 
and  Digges  indicate  that  the  academy  was  no  longer  an 
exclusively  West  Indian  institution,  but  had  become 
strongly  Americanized,  the  students  coming  not  only  from 
Baltimore  and  Maryland,  but  also  from  Pennsylvania, 
Washington,  and  Ireland.  Some  of  the  names  also  suggest 
that  their  bearers  were  probably  non-Catholic.  If  we 

1180Tf.  Lottery  of  $40,000  for  the  Medical  College.  (Steiner,  "History 
of  Education  in  Maryland,"  p.  119.) 

1817,  June.  Rev.  Mr.  Cooper  authorized  to  arrange  a  lottery  to  raise 
$30,000  for  Washington  College.  (Steiner,  "History  of  Education  In 
Maryland,"  p.  84.) 

18S1.  The  Legislature  allowed  St  John's  College  to  raise  180,000  by  lot- 
tery. $20,000  was  realized  and  invested  as  a  College  fund.  (Steiner, 
"History  of  Education  in  Maryland,"  p.  96.) 

3  In  1802  MM.  Faquiet  and  de  Chevlgn*  were  a  valuable  addition  to  the 
teaching  staff. 


106  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

call  to  mind  that  three  or  four  teachers  were  the  usual 
allotment  of  the  Maryland  county  schools,  the  number  of 
instructors  at  the  Sulpician  academy,  which  from  the 
start  numbered  four  or  five,  for  from  twelve  to  twenty- 
five  boys,  proves  that  the  pupils  were  not  neglected,  so  far 
as  their  instructors  went,  and  their  subsequent  careers 
convince  us  that  these  instructors  were  men  not  only  of 
merit  but  of  distinction. 

These  facts  must  have  become  generally  known,  for  in 
1806,  three  years  after  St.  Mary's  was  opened  to  Ameri- 
can students,  and  had  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  uni- 
versity, the  number  of  students  had  risen  to  one  hundred 
and  six  and  the  number  of  instructors  to  ten.  Of  these, 
six  were  laymen  and  four  priests,  all  Sulpicians  except 
one,  the  Eev.  M.  Paquiet.  The  latter,  however,  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  new  college,  for  he 
remained  there  for  many  years,  and  in  1812  became  its 
president,  a  position  which  he  filled  for  three  years.  M. 
Paquiet  felt  himself  thoroughly  at  home  among  the  gen- 
tlemen of  St.  Sulpice  and  soon  acquired  a  reputation  in 
Baltimore  for  his  merits  as  a  scientist.  Another  instruc- 
tor, whose  reputation  as  a  mathematician  secured  many 
friends  and  scholars  for  the  college,  was  M.  de  Chevigne, 
who  was  a  member  of  the  college  faculty  from  1802  to 
1825.  He  had  been  a  sea  captain,  but  had  not  found  his 
true  vocation  until  he  became  professor  of  mathematics 
at  St.  Mary's  College.  He  evidently  felt  himself  thor- 
oughly at  home  in  his  new  sphere,  and  he  evinced  his  loyal 
attachment  to  his  Sulpician  colleagues  by  making  them 
the  heirs  of  all  he  possessed  at  his  death. 

A  further  study  of  the  records  of  St.  Mary's  College  as 
laid  down  in  the  "Memorial  Volume  of  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary," informs  us  that  as  long  as  M.  Dubourg  remained 
at  its  head,  that  is  to  say,  until  1812,  the  college  continued 
to  grow  both  in  the  number  of  its  professors  and  in  that 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  107 

of  its  students.  Of  the  former  there  were  now  twelve, 
but  we  can  not  give  the  exact  number  of  the  students. 
The  proportion  of  laymen  in  the  faculty  continues  about 
the  same,  that  is  to  say,  about  half  of  the  faculty  consisted 
of  clergymen  and  half  of  laymen.  As  the  number  of 
American  students  increased,  we  notice  that  the  faculty 
acquires  professors  with  English  surnames,  such  as  Mul- 
len, Graham,  Woods,  Sinnot,  and  Fenwick.  Evidently 
these  gentlemen  taught  the  English  literary  subjects, 
while  the  classics  and  mathematics  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  French  instructors.  M.  Babad,  we  are  informed, 
taught  Spanish  from  the  very  inception  of  the  academy 
until  1820.  As  M.  Babad  was  not  the  only  Spanish 
teacher  at  the  college  we  must  infer  that  among  its  stu- 
dents there  must  still  have  been  Na  fair  percentage  of 
Spaniards,  and  that  the  Spanish  language  was  a  desidera- 
tum among  the  patrons  of  St.  Mary's. 

At  all  events,  a  comparison  with  the  history  of  other 
colleges  proves  without  doubt  that  St.  Mary's  College  was 
in  advance  of  most  of  them,  so  far  as  the  teaching  of  mod- 
ern languages  goes.1  Indeed,  its  courses  seem  to  have  been 
both  thorough  and  broad,  if  we  judge  by  an  account  of 
the  curriculum  taken  from  a  Baltimore  newspaper  of 
September,  1818.  An  analysis  of  this  document  shows 
that  the  class  hours  at  St.  Mary's  at  the  time  covered  six 
and  a  half  hours  daily,  the  college  sessions  lasting  from 
the  first  Monday  in  September  to  the  middle  of  July.  A 
modern  grammar  school  or  college  proposing  such  a  pro- 

1  It  will  be  of  interest  to  note  that  as  early  as  1814  there  was  a  clamor 
In  the  United  States  for  college  education  without  Latin  or  Greek.  An 
advertisement  published  in  a  Baltimore  paper  in  1814  gives  the  views  of 
the  authorities  of  St.  Mary's  College  on  this  topic  at  that  early  date :  "It 
has  hitherto  been  a  regulation  of  the  college  that  no  student  should  be 
admitted  but  upon  the  condition  of  learning  Latin.  The  president  and  the 
directors  are  determined  to  maintain  and  promote,  as  much  as  is  in  their 
power,  the  study  of  that  language,  as  the  basis  of  a  literary  education. 
However,  they  daily  receive  so  many  applications  for  pupils  who  want  to 
be  dispensed  with  the  aforesaid  rule,  that  they  will  admit  students  to  fol- 
low at  their  choice  English.  French  and  Spanish,  geography  and  the  nse 
of  globes,  practical  arithmetic,  mathematics  in  their  branches,  and  natural 
philosophy."  (August  1,  1814.) 


108  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

gram  to  its  students  would  hardly  escape  a  strike,  espe- 
cially in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  boys  of  a  hundred  years 
ago  had  to  sit  in  class  six  and  a  half  hours  a  day,  whereas 
at  the  present  time  four  to  four  and  a  half  hours  are 
prescribed  as  the  maximum.  This  time  was  apportioned 
to  the  several  studies  very  differently  from  the  modern 
distribution.  Colleges  of  those  days  knew  nothing  of 
sociology,  economics,  and  political  science,  sciences  ap- 
parently so  called  on  the  liwus  a  non  lucendo  principle. 
Even  history  is  missing  from  the  curriculum  and  moral 
philosophy  is  the  only  philosophical  study  mentioned. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  program  demands  a  great  deal 
of  solid,  hard  work.  An  hour  and  a  half  a  day  is  given 
to  mathematics,  an  hour  and  a  half  to  Latin,  an  hour 
and  a  half  to  English,  modern  languages,  science,  and 
Greek,  and  the  rest  of  the  time  to  various  other  subjects, 
including  higher  mathematics,  natural  philosophy,  rhet- 
oric, geography,  and  the  use  of  the  globes.  Even  writing, 
drawing,  music,  and  dancing  are  provided  for.  Some 
time  during  the  day  an  hour  or  so  was  devoted  to  study 
in  a  large  hall  especially  assigned  for  the  purpose.  The 
Latin  course  seems  to  have  embraced  six  years,  an  hour 
and  a  half  a  day;  the  Greek  three.  The  students  seem 
to  have  acquired  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  former 
language,  for  they  not  only  delivered  Latin  discourses 
at  their  commencements,  but  some  of  them  are  mentioned 
as  the  writers  of  occasional  Latin  verse. 

Though  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  were  for  the  most 
part  natives  of  France,  they  were  too  good  pedagogues  to 
neglect  the  study  of  English.  Several  of  the  professors 
at  St.  Mary's,  Between  1810  and  1830,  are  mentioned 
as  capable  instructors  in  English  literature,  for  instance, 
Messrs.  Doyle,  Hickey,  and  Sinnot.  At  this  time  it  may 
not  be  useless  to  remind  our  readers  that  the  study  of 
English  literature  did  not  form  a  prominent  feature  in 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  109 

the  programs  of  most  American  colleges,  and  St.  Mary's 
is  probably  in  this  respect  rather  in  advance  of  the  usual 
American  college  curriculum. 

In  American  colleges  much  importance  has  been  at- 
tached to  the  yearly  commencement  exercises.  Indeed,  it 
may  be  said  that  in  some  respects  they  have  been  quite 
characteristic  of  the  spirit  and  aims  of  American  academic 
institutions.  Fortunately,  we  possess  the  programs  of 
some  of  these  exercises  at  St.  Mary's  during  the  second 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  They  differ  greatly 
from  the  proceedings  now  in  vogue,  especially  at  the  more 
ambitious  colleges,  where  commencements  are  gradually 
being  reduced  to  the  awards  of  degrees  and  honors.  A 
hundred  years  ago,  several  days  were  sometimes  devoted 
to  the  strict  collegiate  exercises,  without  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  reunions  of  students  and  graduates  and 
their  societies.  At  St.  Mary's  College  in  the  year  1816, 
the  commencement  exercises  were  of  a  very  varied  char- 
acter. We  copy  from  a  contemporary  newspaper  account : 

"On  the  16th  instant  (1816)  the  usual  experiments  of 
natural  philosophy  took  place  at  St.  Mary's  College. 
Some  fireworks  practiced  with  the  inflammable  gases  had 
a  brilliant  effect;  a  small  balloon  of  hydrogen  gas  was 
launched  and  soon  disappeared,  taking  its  course  to  the 
north.  A  larger  one  took  fire.  In  the  afternoon  the  fol- 
lowing orations  were  delivered:  On  the  Advantages  of 
Natural  Philosophy,  by  William  de  St.  Martin;  On  the 
Fine  Arts,  by  Thomas  Middleton;  On  Eloquence  (in 
Latin),  by  Robert  Ross;  On  Chivalry,  by  Enoch  Magru- 
der ;  On  Astronomy,  by  Charles  de  Chapotin  of  Savannah. 
Afterward  the  degrees  of  A.B.  were  conferred  on  the 
above  gentlemen  and  the  degree  of  A.M.  on  Jasper  Y. 
Smith,  Edward  Coleman,  W.  Howard,  F.  J.  Didier, 
James  Mosher.  On  the  following  afternoon  two  dia- 


110  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

logues  were  spoken:  1st.  Moderation  in  our  pursuits. 
2nd.  Inconveniences  of  a  Spirit  of  Mockery.  Then  Colo- 
nel Howard  delivered  the  premiums." 

Of  the  commencement  in  1813,  we  find  the  following 
account : 

"In  presence  of  a  numerous  assembly,  the  following 
gentlemen  delivered  orations:  Mr.  Ebenezer  Jackson  of 
Savannah  on  The  Influence  of  Governments  on  Litera- 
ture; Mr.  Woodrop  Sims  of  Philadelphia  on  The  Advan- 
tages of  Society;  Mr.  H.  M.  Byrne  of  Pennsylvania  on 
Moral  Philosophy;  Mr.  Charles  Carroll  of  Hagerstown 
on  Traveling;  Mr.  William  Kemper  Sitgraves  of  Phila- 
delphia on  Painting  and  the  Fine  Arts ;  Mr.  W.  H.  Brent 
Sewall  of  Prince  George  on  Patriotism.  The  degree  of 
A.B.  was  then  conferred  on  them  and  the  exercise  was 
concluded  with  an  address  and  prayer  by  the  president." 

We  may  add  that  other  reports  show  that  it  was  a  regu- 
lar custom  to  give  one  day  to  a  species  of  public  exami- 
nation, in  which  special  stress  was  laid  on  science  and 
scientific  experiments.  We  can  readily  conceive  that 
at  the  time  when  science  was  mostly  confined  to  the  lab- 
oratory and  when  the  application  of  physics  and  chemis- 
try was  not  to  be  found  in  every  highway  and  byway, 
ascents  of  hydrogen  balloons  must  have  produced  no  little 
sensation.  Of  course,  the  college  enjoyed  much  scientific 
fame,  and  this  lasted  as  long  as  it  existed.  MM.  de 
Chevigne  and  Paquiet  were  well-known  scientists  in  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  M.  Verot,  another  of  St. 
Mary's  scientific  professors,  afterward  Bishop  of  St.  Au- 
gustine, Fla.,  was  noted  as  a  scientist  toward  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century.  He  corresponded  with  Professor 
Henry  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  other  notables 
of  that  period. 

An  examination  of  the  subjects  of  the  discourses  deliv- 


ST.  MAKY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  111 

ered  at  these  commencements  shows  that  the  young  Ciceros 
spoke  on  academic  themes  rather  than  on  live  political 
questions.  To-day  we  find  our  colleges  crowded  with  em- 
bryo statesmen  who  settle  the  knottiest  international  ques- 
tions by  the  most  cocksure  assertions. 

A  hundred  years  ago  St.  Mary's  Seminary  did  not, 
as  it  does  at  present,  lie  in  the  middle  of  the  city,  but 
formed  a  part  of  the  suburbs  of  Baltimore.  The  students 
were  boarders,  probably  even  the  Baltimoreans.  The  class 
hours  extended  to  as  late  as  six  o'clock.  The  students  rose 
at  half  past  five  o'clock,  had  morning  prayer  in  common 
and  Mass  at  six,  followed  by  an  hour  and  a  half  of  study, 
succeeded  by  a  recess  and  breakfast  at  a  quarter  past  eight. 
Dinner  was  served  at  half  past  one  o'clock  and  was  pre- 
ceded by  half  an  hour's  recreation. 

In  those  simple  days  few  attractions  tempted  the  boys 
to  seek  their  amusements  outside  of  the  college  grounds, 
theatrical  performances  being  rare  and  opera  unknown. 
Not  even  baseball  caused  any  infraction  of  college  dis- 
cipline. We  must  not,  however,  underestimate  the  im- 
portance of  the  chief  disciplinarian  or  prefect  of  disci- 
pline, as  he  was  called.  Men  like  the  future  Bishop 
Flaget  and  M.  Joubert  laid  at  St.  Mary's  College  the  ba- 
sis of  their  renown  as  disciplinarians. 

The  studies  extended  from  the  beginning  of  September 
till  past  the  middle  of  July,  leaving  only  six  weeks  of 
vacation.  During  the  vacations  most  of  the  boys  went 
home.  M.  Tessier  records  their  departure  by  the  Phila- 
delphia public  stage.  On  one  occasion  the  dogs  followed 
them  probably  as  far  as  the  Susquehanna,  and  returned 
after  two  days  of  absence.  But  when  the  boys  lived  at  too 
great  a  distance,  the  college  took  care  of  them  during  vaca- 
tion also.  Most  of  these  vacation  students  were  West  In- 
dians. The  way  in  which  they  spent  their  holidays  illus- 
trates Maryland  life  a  hundred  years  ago  and  also  the  rela- 


112  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tions  existing  between  professors  and  students.  Though 
situated  in  the  suburbs  of  the  town,  St.  Mary's  was  not  suf- 
ficiently rustic  for  the  summer  residence  of  the  vacation 
boarders.  Fortunately  for  the  boys  Pigeon  Hill  or  Friend- 
ly Hall,  the  former  home  of  M.  Harent,  after  its  consolida- 
tion with  Mount  St  Mary's,  or  Emmitsburg,  in  1808,  of- 
fered its  hospitable  doors  to  them.  MM.  Tessier  and 
Deluol  in  their  diaries  have  left  us  the  story  of  the  vacation 
joys  of  St.  Mary's  West  Indian  boarder  students.  We  con- 
dense their  accounts: 

On  the  appointed  day,  the  boys,  in  charge  of  some  of  the 
instructors  and  Fathers,  and  accompanied  by  a  variety  of 
dogs  and  guns,  took  their  seats  in  the  private  stages  which 
were  to  take  them  to  Friendly  Hall,  in  Adams  County, 
Pa.  Their  arrival  was  a  gay  day  for  the  neighborhood. 
The  neighboring  farmers  welcomed  the  college  boys  and 
showed  themselves  quite  hospitable.  Once  settled  down, 
the  boys  had  a  fine  time,  though  they  were  not  altogether 
free  from  the  pedagogue's  yoke.  They  rose  an  hour  later 
than  at  Baltimore,  breakfasted  and  dined  longer,  but  had 
to  study  and  work  the  greater  part  of  the  forenoon.  We 
find  no  program  for  the  afternoon,  which  means  that  the 
boys  spent  it  in  their  own  way.  Their  chief  sport  seems 
to  have  been  hunting  and  their  principal  playmates  the 
dogs.  They  roamed  north  and  south  from  Pigeon  Hill, 
accompanied  by  their  faithful  hounds,  and  sometimes  they 
must  have  gone  to  a  considerable  distance. 

While  gunning  was  the  chief,  it  was  not  the  only,  sport. 
Fishing,  of  course,  filled  the  leisure  hours  of  the  men  who 
had  no  desire  to  become  Nimrods.  To  both  fishermen  and 
hunters  the  fruits  of  the  country  were  legitimate  booty. 
At  times  they  also  harnessed  the  horses  and  tended  the 
cows.  Of  course,  some  of  the  prefects  always  accompanied 
the  young  hunters.  The  boys  were  not  allowed  to  enter 
any  houses,  whether  public  or  otherwise.  They  received 


ST.  MAKY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  113 

strict  instructions  controlling  their  general  behavior; 
for  example,  the  boys  must  not  enter  towns  or  go  to  swim- 
ming-places except  when  accompanied  by  one  of  their 
teachers.  The  gunners  must  not  take  any  guns  but  their 
own  nor  lend  their  guns  to  any  one  elsa  They  must  not 
shoot  at  horses  or  other  animals  nor  injure  the  crops  by 
marching  through  the  fields.  They  must  carry  their  guns 
with  care,  and  never,  even  in  fun,  point  them  at  any  one 
else.  These  jolly  vacation  amusements  continued  until 
1847,  when  Friendly  Hall  was  sold.  About  the  same  time 
a  summer-house  was  built  on  the  grounds  of  St.  Charles 
College,  but  probably  the  sports  at  the  latter  place  could 
not  be  compared  with  the  Pigeon  Hill  experiences.  One 
thing  is  certain,  the  farmers  who  dwelt  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Pigeon  Hill  greatly  enjoyed  the  students'  visits,  and 
their  pranks  are  still  spoken  of  in  Adams  County. 

Such  was  college  life  and  discipline  at  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege about  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  such  the  spirit  which 
animated  the  institution.  As  in  their  seminaries  the  Sul- 
picians  strove  to  be  the  equals,  and  as  much  as  possible 
the  brothers,  of  the  seminarians,  so  at  the  college  they 
ruled  and  taught  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  confidence  and 
bonhommie,  a  spirit,  however,  which  never  failed  to  im- 
press on  the  scholars  the  earnestness  of  their  work. 

Of  M.  Dubourg's  popularity  we  have  already  spoken, 
as  well  as  of  his  good  nature.  With  these  qualities  he 
coupled  an  impressive  dignity,  which  did  not  fail  to  lay 
stress  on  externals.  The  college  buildings  which  he  reared 
were  not  only  solid  and  lasting,  but  in  their  day  they  were 
the  handsomest  academic  buildings  in  Baltimore.  In 
fact,  some  of  his  Sulpician  brethren  thought  that  they 
were  too  attractive,  or  what  is  more  to  the  point,  too 
expensive.  M.  Emery  thought  it  necessary  to  clip  Du- 
bourg's wings  in  this  direction,  but  Bishop  Carroll,  prob- 
ably with  an  amused  recollection  of  the  old  medieval 


THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

principle  that  every  being  acts  in  accordance  with  its  na- 
ture, was  of  the  opinion  that  the  president  of  the  college 
could  not  avoid  doing  what  he  did. 

At  all  events,  M.  Dubourg's  policy  impressed  parents 
and  attracted  students  and  the  college  grew  apace.  When 
in  1812,  in  accordance  with  Bishop  Carroll's  recommenda- 
tion, the  government  of  the  new  diocese  of  New  Orleans 
passed  into  the  hands  of  M.  Dubourg,  St.  Mary's  was  out 
of  its  infancy.  M.  Paquiet,  the  secular  priest,  who  suc- 
ceeded M.  Dubourg,  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
college  and  its  needs.  He  understood  the  spirit  of  its  pa- 
trons and  was,  moreover,  a  scholar  of  scientific  tastes. 
Accordingly,  the  college  maintained  its  high  reputation 
and  especially  continued  to  draw  many  non-Catholic  stu- 
dents, as  will  have  been  seen  from  the  commencement 
programs  which  we  have  placed  before  our  readers. 

In  1815  M.  Paquiet  retired  and  the  Rev.  Simon  Brute, 
a  Sulpician,  took  his  place.  Brute  was  a  remarkable  man, 
the  details  of  whose  biography  will  be  given  in  another 
chapter.  In  1815  he  succeeded  M.  Paquiet,  as  head  of  St. 
Mary's,  maintaining  the  spirit  and  policy  which  had  so  far 
characterized  the  institution,  as  we  may  infer  from  the 
commencement  program  for  the  year  1818.  At  all  events 
the  college  continued  to  flourish  under  him.  But  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  was  called  to  Mount  St.  Mary's,  Emmits- 
burg,  to  become,  by  the  side  of  M.  Dubois,  one  of  the 
mainstays  of  that  institution.  The  headship  of  St.  Mary's 
thereupon  passed  over  to  M.  Damphoux,  who  ruled  its 
fortunes  for  the  next  eleven  years. 

That  the  condition  of  the  college  was  very  promising 
in  1819  can  not  be  doubted.  The  number  of  instructors 
had  risen  to  twenty,  of  whom  twelve  were  priests  and 
eight  laymen.  In  1829,  the  last  year  of  M.  Damphoux's 
administration,  the  college  faculty  maintained  the  same 
figures,  the  lay  and  clerical  elements  being  fairly  balanced. 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  115 

We  may,  therefore,  assume  that  there  had  been  no  loss  in 
the  number  of  students.  If  we  suppose  that  the  propor- 
tion of  instructors  to  students  remained  the  same  as  in 
1806,  the  students  must  have  numbered  a  little  more  than 
two  hundred,  which  may  be  rather  below  than  above  the 
true  figures. 

Having  obtained  from  our  imperfect  sources  as  good  a 
picture  of  life  and  work  at  St.  Mary's  College  as  they 
afford,  it  is  time  to  turn  our  eyes  toward  the  faculty  and 
the  students.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  Sulpician 
college  was  not  behind  other  academic  institutions  in 
Maryland,  so  far  as  the  number  of  instructors  is  con- 
cerned. Indeed,  from  the  beginning  it  could  hold  its  own 
against  contemporary  Maryland  institutions. 

Of  the  first  and  second  presidents  we  have  already 
spoken.  They  were  both  men  of  more  than  fair  executive 
ability  and  M.  Paquiet  had,  moreover,  a  deserved  reputa- 
tion as  a  scientist.  The  third  president,  the  Sulpician 
Simon  Gabriel  Brute,  was  not  only  a  trained  French 
scientist  and  a  thorough  theologian,  but  also  a  gentleman 
who,  wherever  duty  placed  him,  showed  himself  a  man 
of  tact  and  ability.  Unfortunately  circumstances  called 
him  away  from  St.  Mary's  to  Emmitsburg  to  assist  his 
friend,  M.  Dubois,  and  M.  Edward  Damphoux  became 
president  of  St.  Mary's.  As  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  conferred  on  him  by 
Rome  in  1824,  M.  Damphoux  was  a  good  scholar,  and  his 
remaining  at  the  head  of  the  college  for  eleven  years  is  evi- 
dence that  he  was  not  without  administrative  talent.  How- 
ever, during  the  last  years  of  his  rule  at  St.  Mary's  differ- 
ences of  opinion  seem  to  have  arisen  between  him  and  some 
of  his  confreres.  In  1827  Father  Wheeler  for  a  time  took 
his  place  as  president,  but  failing  health  led  to  his  with- 
drawal, and  M.  Damphoux  resumed  the  presidency.  When 
M.  Carriere  came  from  France,  in  1829,  as  the  representa- 


116  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

tive  of  M.  Gamier,  the  superior-general,  M.  Damphoux  re- 
signed the  presidency  of  St.  Mary's,  and  left  the  Society 
of  St.  Sulpice.  He  was  appointed  rector  of  the  Baltimore 
Cathedral,  which  position  he  filled  for  many  years. 

Among  the  professors  who  during  this  period  shed  lus- 
ter on  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  were  several  men  whose 
ability  and  vigor  are  guaranteed  to  us  not  only  by  their 
work  at  St.  Mary's,  but  also  by  their  careers  as  distin- 
guished prelates  after  their  departure  from  its  academic 
halls.  MM.  Deluol  and  Lhomme  were  promoted  to  the 
presidency  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  We  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  speak  of  them  hereafter.  MM.  Eccleston  and 
Chanche  were  raised  to  the  episcopacy,  the  former  becom- 
ing the  fifth  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  and  the  latter  the 
first  Bishop  of  Natchez.  Archbishop  Eccleston  was  an 
elegant  Latin  and  English  scholar  and  a  fine  speaker, 
while  Dr.  Chanche  was  a  good  classical  scholar  and  an 
authority  on  rhetoric.  Father  Wheeler,  who  was  the 
president  of  St.  Mary's  from  1827  to  1828,  was  a  practical 
man,  as  appeared  from  the  help  he  gave  the  Sisters  of 
the  Visitation  in  Washington.  He  proved  his  moral  fiber 
when,  in  1832,  he  laid  down  his  life  for  his  principles 
during  the  great  cholera  epidemic.  Father  John  Larkin 
won  his  spurs  as  a  professor  when  a  Sulpician  at  St. 
Mary's.  We  must  not  forget  the  names  of  the  Sulpicians 
J.  Randanne  and  E.  Knight,  who  adorned  St.  Mary's 
faculty  for  more  than  twenty-six  years  each.  The  lay 
professors  F.  G.  Foster  and  William  T.  Kelly  were  also 
members  of  the  faculty  for  many  years.  Mariano  Cubi  y 
Soler,  professor  of  Spanish  after  M.  Babad's  retirement, 
was  the  author  of  a  Spanish  grammar. 

The  system  of  drawing  the  teachers  for  the  lower  classes 
from  the  students  of  the  seminary  continued  in  force  dur- 
ing this  period.  In  fact,  it  was  even  extended,  and  from 
the  general  prosperity  of  the  institution,  we  may  con- 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  117 

elude  that  this  system  had  no  evil  consequences  for  the 
college. 

Even  more  interesting  than  our  survey  of  the  life  and 
studies  of  St.  Mary's  and  of  the  character  and  doings  of 
the  faculty,  is  a  study  of  its  students.  It  is  regrettable 
that  no  contemporaneous  pen  has  sketched  for  us  the 
composition  of  this  heterogeneous  but  characteristic  gath- 
ering of  young  Americans.  Our  chief  source  of  informa- 
tion is  the  list  of  the  students  in  the  "Memorial  Volume 
of  the  Centenary  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice," 
published  in  1891.  It  is  a  valuable  historical  document 
and  perhaps  unique  of  its  kind.1  It  offers  to  us  much 
food  for  reflection  and  suggests  many  problems.  It  illus- 
trates the  character  of  the  population  of  the  Southern 
States,  and  to  some  extent  of  Pennsylvania,  during  the  first 
thirty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Perhaps  outside 
of  Georgetown  College  and  Mount  St.  Mary's,  no  Ameri- 
can college  has  so  kaleidoscopic  a  character.  But  whether 
Georgetown  and  Mount  St.  Mary's  ought  to  be  classed 
with  St.  Mary's,  Baltimore,  is  doubtful,  for  in  their  case 
we  have  no  document  similar  to  this  roster  of  the  students 
of  St.  Mary's. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  our  modern  Catholic  colleges 
in  the  East  are  in  many  respects  a  contrast  to  old  St. 
Mary's.  While  in  the  former  the  names  are  homogeneous 
and  for  the  greater  part  indicate  that  the  ancestors  of 
their  bearers  lived  in  the  Green  Isle,  St.  Mary's  cata- 
logue is  very  cosmopolitan.  It  is  true  that  we  rarely  meet 
with  a  Cuban,  but  there  is  no  dearth  of  Mexicans  and 
South  Americans.  French  names  abound,  some  belong- 
ing to  French  West  Indians  and  others  to  Louisianians 
and  others  again  hailing  from  Baltimore  itself.  We 
are  struck  by  the  frequent  repetition  of  a  Belgian  name 
from  the  city  of  Brussels.  It  is  the  name  of  Seghers, 

1  In  the  list  some  names  occur  twice,  and  as  It  was  compiled  from  frag- 
mentary documents  It  Is  not  quite  complete. 


118  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

afterward  borne  by  the  great  Archbishop  of  Oregon,  who 
was  slain  by  his  man  attendant  on  the  banks  of  the  Yu- 
kon. Whether  the  Seghers  of  St.  Mary's  were  related  to 
the  archbishop  our  catalogue  does  not  say.  We  meet  with 
a  strong  contingent  of  Germans,  some,  no  doubt,  direct 
importations  from  the  Fatherland,  while  probably  not  a  few 
are  descendants  of  the  old  Catholic  families  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  North  and  East  naturally  contributed  few 
students,  though  St.  Mary's,  Baltimore,  was  at  the  time 
probably  the  northernmost  and  easternmost  of  Catholic 
colleges.  The  reason  is  plain.  There  were  at  this  time 
few  Catholics  in  the  Eastern  States,  and  the  Protestants 
were  well  supplied  with  colleges  of  their  own. 

Being  entirely  or  for  the  most  part  a  boarding-college, 
St.  Mary's  students  numbered  but  few  poor  scholars.  We 
find  among  them  representatives  of  the  best  known  fam- 
ilies, Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  in  Maryland  and  the 
South.  Prominent  on  the  list  are  such  Catholic  Maryland 
names  as  the  Carrolls,  and  not  only  the  Carrolls  of  Car- 
rollton,  but  also  the  other  branches  of  the  family  are  rep- 
resented here.  Not  less  striking  is  the  name  of  Jerome 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  the  first  of  the  Patterson  Bonapartes 
and  son  of  the  King  of  Westphalia.  Whether  the  Henry 
Patterson,  nearly  contemporary  with  the  Patterson  Bona- 
parte, was  a  relative  of  his  we  can  not  determine.  We 
meet  with  a  Henry  Chatard,  no  doubt  an  ancestor  of  the 
later  Bishop  of  Vincennes.  A  Catholic  college  in  Balti- 
more without  representatives  of  the  Jenkins  family  would 
have  been  an  anomaly.  Perhaps  there  is  no  more  illus- 
trious Catholic  name  contained  in  the  list  than  that  of 
Alexander  Gaston  of  North  Carolina,  probably  a  relative 
of  the  great  jurist  of  Newbern.  The  foremost  Irishman 
in  Baltimore  at  this  time  was  Luke  Tiernan.1  Several 

1  See  Meehan,  In  "Records  and  Studies,"  vol.  vl.,  pt.  11,  p.  203. 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  119 

of  Mr.   Tiernan's  sons  received  their  education  at  St. 
Mary's. 

Young  Patterson  Bonaparte  represented  the  imperial 
families  of  Europe.  America's  imperial  representative 
was  Angelo  Iturbide,  the  son  of  Augustin,  the  first  Itur- 
bide  of  Mexico,  who  had  lost  his  life  and  his  throne  a  year 
or  two  before  we  meet  his  son  Angelo  as  a  student  of  St 
Mary's.  Angelo's  son,  Augustin,  was  adopted  by  Maxi- 
milian of  Mexico.  We  notice  also  the  name  of  the  Nen- 
ningers,  who  figured  as  lay  instructors  at  the  college  al- 
most as  long  as  it  existed.  Charles  Boarman  reminds  us 
of  the  old  Maryland  Catholic  Boarman  family,  several  of 
whom  were  Jesuits  in  the  olden  time,  and  to  which  be- 
longed Rear-admiral  Charles  Boarman.  Andrew  Bien- 
venue  Roman,  after  filling  divers  other  places  of  public 
trust,  served  two  terms  as  Governor  of  Louisiana.  He 
founded  Jefferson  College,  did  much  to  drain  the  neigh- 
borhood of  New  Orleans  and  protect  it  against  overflow 
and  was  repeatedly  a  member  of  State  constitutional  con- 
ventions and  a  strong  advocate  of  the  Union. 

Among  the  boys  who  sought  their  education  in  St. 
Mary's  College  in  1812  and  the  following  years,  was 
Edward  Kavanagh  of  Damariscotta,  Maine.  In  1821  M. 
Tessier  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  M.A.  with  many 
complimentary  words.  Edward  Kavanagh  was  destined 
to  become  the  first  Catholic  governor  in  the  New  England 
States.  After  rendering  many  services  to  his  native 
State  as  congressman  and  to  the  Union  as  Minister  to 
Portugal,  he  became  acting  governor  of  the  State  in 
March,  1843.  In  1831  we  find  that  Mr.  Kavanagh  had 
not  forgotten  his  alma  mater,  for  in  M.  Deluol's  diary  he 
records  the  fact  that  the  Maine  congressman  dined  with 
him.1 

The  Catholic  students  of  St.  Mary's,  therefore,  include 

1  See    article    on    Gov.    Edward    Kavanagh    by    Very    Rev.    Monsignor 
Charles  W.  Collins  in  "Historical  Records  and  Studies,"  vol.  v,  p.  249  sqq. 


120  THE    STILPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

some  very  interesting  names,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the 
non-Catholic  students.  We  do  not  pretend  that  our  se- 
lection is  complete,  for  we  are  not  sufficiently  familiar 
with  all  the  distinguished  Southern  families.  Let  us  be- 
gin with  the  well-known  South  Carolina  families  of  the 
Pinkneys  and  the  Rutledges,  both  belonging  to  the  old 
Southern  aristocracy  of  ante-Civil  War  times.  The  name 
of  the  former  Governor  of  Maryland,  Warfield,  occurs  as 
that  of  a  student  between  1819  and  1825,  and  he  was  not 
the  only  Warfield  among  the  alumni  of  St.  Mary's.  Twice 
or  three  times,  we  observe  the  name  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Quakers,  Ellicott,  the  best  known  representative  of  which 
family  was  the  distinguished  engineer  and  friend  of  Wash- 
ington and  Franklin,  the  first  to  determine  the  height  of 
Niagara  Falls,  and  whose  name  survives  in  that  of  Ellicott 
City. 

Among  the  students  of  St.  Mary's  from  1821  to  1823 
was  Benjamin  H.  Latrobe,  son  of  the  architect  of  the  na- 
tional capitol  at  Washington,  as  well  as  of  the  Baltimore 
cathedral,  who  was  the  scion  of  a  Huguenot  family  which 
left  France  after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 
Benjamin  H.  Latrobe  was  the  worthy  son  of  a  worthy 
father.  After  being  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  turned  his 
attention  to  engineering,  became  chief  engineer  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  and  was  one  of  the  consult- 
ing engineers  on  the  board  that  approved  the  plans  of  the 
Brooklyn  Bridge. 

In  1827  and  1828  and  for  some  years  afterward,  Severn 
Teakle  Wallis  was  a  student  at  St.  Mary's.  He  was  a 
prominent  figure  in  Maryland  literature  and  politics  until 
his  death  in  1894.  Besides  being  a  frequent  contributor 
to  contemporary  periodical  publications  he  was  an  ardent 
student  of  Spanish  literature,  and  his  reputation  as  a 
Spanish  scholar  led  to  his  election  as  a  corresponding 
member  of  the  Eoyal  Academy  of  Madrid.  A  similar 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  121 

honor  came  to  him  from  the  Society  of  Northern  Anti- 
quaries of  Copenhagen.  During  the  stormy  days  in 
Maryland  which  preceded  the  Civil  War,  Mr.  Wallis  was 
one  of  the  champions  of  the  anti-war  party,  and  in  con- 
sequence was  imprisoned  for  more  than  fourteen  months. 
Being  set  free  without  trial,  he  returned  to  the  prac- 
tice of  the  law  and  was  honored  in  various  ways  by  his 
fellow-citizens.  He  was  named  provost  of  the  Maryland 
University  in  1870,  and  delivered  the  memorial  oration 
on  Chief  Justice  Taney  in  1872.  Besides  a  life  of  George 
Peabody,  he  published  several  works  on  Spain. 

In  the  account  of  the  commencement  exercises  of  July 
16,  1816,  we  meet  the  name  of  Howard  among  the  grad- 
uates. On  the  same  occasion  the  premiums  were  distrib- 
uted by  old  Colonel  Howard,  the  hero  of  the  battle  of  the 
Cowpens  and  of  many  other  battles  in  the  Kevolutionary 
War.  He  had  been  Governor  of  Maryland  from  1789  to 
1792  and  United  States  Senator  1796-1803.  In  short, 
the  Howards  were  at  this  time  one  of  the  most  prominent 
of  Baltimore  families,  whose  name  is  borne  by  a  county  in 
Maryland  and  a  well-known  street  in  Baltimore  to  this 
day. 

Another  Protestant  student  borne  on  the  rolls  of  St. 
Mary's  College  at  this  time  was  Samuel  Eccleston,  a  na- 
tive of  Kent  County,  Md.,  and  a  graduate  of  the  year 
1819.  During  his  residence  at  the  college  he  became  a 
Catholic  and  subsequently  a  member  of  the  company  of 
St.  Sulpice.  We  have  already  mentioned  him  several 
times  as  a  distinguished  scholar  and  orator,  who  in  1834 
was  appointed  the  fifth  Archbishop  of  Baltimore.  We- 
shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  speak  of  his  episcopal  ca- 
reer, which  lasted  till  1851. 

The  chronicle  of  St.  Mary's  College  which  we  have- 
placed  before  our  readers  sufficiently  establishes  the  fact 
that  from  its  very  foundation  until  the  end  of  M.  Dam- 


122  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

phoux's  administration,  in  1829,  the  institution  was  a 
success.  There  may  have  been  some  financial  difficulties 
at  the  start,  but  these  were  overcome  and  probably  ex- 
aggerated. Neither  the  American  nor  much  less  the 
French  Sulpicians  at  the  time  had  any  prevision  of  the 
rapidity  of  the  commercial  growth  of  the  new  American 
Republic.  In  this  regard  Bishop  Dubourg  seems  to  have 
been  in  advance  of  his  time. 

From  the  academic  point  of  view  the  merits  of  the  col- 
lege were  undoubted.  Compared  with  the  older  non- 
Catholic  colleges  the  teaching  staff  was  more  than  ade- 
quate, the  proportion  of  students  to  instructors  being  less 
in  Baltimore  than  in  the  other  academic  institutions  of 
the  State.  The  Sulpicians  were  good  Latin  scholars  and 
some  of  them  good  Hellenists.  In  matherdatics,  too,  and 
the  sciences  then  taught  .at  colleges  they  had  several 
able  men,  like  Brute,  Paquiet,  and  de  Chevigne.  French 
and  Spanish,  by  force  of  circumstances,  received  unusual 
attention.  We  have  seen  that  the  old  Sulpicians,  while 
appreciating  the  classics  at  their  full  value,  were  no  su- 
perstitious worshippers  of  Latin  and  Greek. 

Hand  in  hand  with  this  reasonable  treatment  of  the 
curriculum  went  a  rational,  gentlemanly  system  of  disci- 
pline, based  on  an  appeal  to  self-respect  and  character 
and  not  on  spying  and  terrorism.  Their  success  in  satis- 
fying both  their  Catholic  and  their  non-Catholic  scholars 
is  a  proof  of  their  fairness  and  justice.  The  Sulpicians 
were  especially  fortunate  in  the  character  of  their  pupils. 
They  were  not  a  collection  of  self-conceited  plutocrats  or 
aristocrats,  for  Maryland,  while  boasting  of  the  respecta- 
bility of  her  colonists,  had  fostered  no  privileged  classes 
and  respected  the  ethical  virtues  more  than  wealth.  Be- 
sides, the  youth  of  those  days,  as  well  as  their  parents,  had 
not  lost  the  feeling  that  experience  is  the  mother  of  wis- 
dom, and  that  age  is  the  guide  of  youth,  it  not  having 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1805-1830  123 

occurred  to  them  to  regard  youth  as  the  director  of  old 
age. 

The  Sulpicians  had  the  respect  and  attachment  of  their 
pupils,  not  only  Catholic  but  also  non-Catholic,  though  it  is 
noteworthy  that  the  Protestant  students  of  St.  Mary's,  like 
the  Protestant  students  of  Kentucky,  as  Father  Thebaud 
tells  us,  rarely  became  converts.  But  their  attachment  to 
their  old  teachers  was  marked,  and  as  long  as  St.  Mary's  ex- 
isted, its  alumni  rarely  sent  their  children  to  any  other  col- 
lege than  their  alma  mater.  Those  were  not  the  days  of 
academic  advertisement,  but  the  Sulpicians  unquestionably 
profited  by  the  best  form  of  academic  advertising,  the  good 
will  and  the  praise  of  their  former  pupils. 

Such  was  St.  Mary's  College  during  the  first  half  of  its 
existence.  It  was  the  home  of  all  the  academic  virtues. 
The  favor,  not  only  of  its  students  and  their  friends,  but 
indeed  of  all  the  State,  Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  prom- 
ised greater  and  greater  prosperity.  The  resignation  of 
M.  Damphoux  was  not  the  result  of  any  financial  crisis 
nor  of  otherwise  untoward  circumstances.  It  was  not 
even  due  to  a  feeling  that  it  was  time  for  Americans  to 
replace  the  French  Fathers,  although  as  a  matter  of  fact 
M.  Damphoux's  successor,  M.  Eccleston,  was  an  American. 
We  close  our  chapter  here  because  M.  Carriere's  mission 
marks,  in  a  way,  the  consolidation  of  the  traditional  policy 
of  St.  Sulpice  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  period  of  pros- 
perity. 


CHAPTER  VI 
OTHER  SUBSIDIARIES  OF  ST.  MARY'S  SEMINARY 

St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  was  the  offspring  of  ne- 
cessity, the  necessity  to  find  students  for  St.  Mary's  semi- 
nary and  candidates  for  the  priesthood.  Even  many  years 
before  the  establishment  of  St.  Mary's  College,  in  fact 
within  a  year  after  the  arrival  of  the  first  Sulpicians,  they 
had  gathered  together  boys  likely  to  have  a  call  to  the 
priesthood  who  had  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  sem- 
inary. But  the  effort  led  to  no  practical  result. 

It  was  not  long  after  the  arrival  of  M.  Nagot's  party 
that  M.  Emery  was  convinced  that  to  produce  fruits,  the 
Baltimore  seminary  must  have  feeders.  Therefore,  when, 
in  1792,  he  sent  over  the  second  party  of  Sulpicians, 
among  them  MM.  Flaget  and  Eichard,  he  instructed  them 
if  possible  to  start  preparatory  seminaries  in  the  western 
missionary  field  allotted  to  them.  In  the  same  year,  in 
a  letter  to  M.  Nagot,  he  bids  him  see  to  it  that  M.  Flaget 
and  the  other  Sulpicians  sent  to  the  West  turn  their  at- 
tention to  providing  seminary  students  for  Baltimore. 
The  Sulpician  missionaries  in  the  West  earnestly  strove 
to  carry  out  these  instructions,  but  the  Illinois  soil  proved 
to  be  a  barren  recruiting  ground  for  the  Baltimore  semi- 
nary. In  1T95  Bishop  Carroll  recalled  M.  Flaget  from 
the  Illinois  mission  and  sent  him  as  vice-president  to 
Georgetown. 

M.  Kichard,  who  went  to  the  West  about  the  same  time 
as  M.  Flaget,  had  no  greater  success,  though  his  zeal  to 
carry  out  M.  Emery's  plans  was  no  less  than  M.  Flaget's. 

124 


His  activity  covered  not  only  the  Illinois  country,  but  ex- 
tended northward  to  Michigan,  where  he  settled  at  De- 
troit, whither  we  shall  follow  him  in  due  time.  Here  it 
suffices  to  say  that  his  efforts  to  provide  seminary  stu- 
dents for  Baltimore  bore  no  fruit  during  the  last  decade 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

While  the  attempt  to  secure  recruits  for  the  seminary 
among  the  French  population  of  the  West  proved  abortive, 
M.  Dubourg's  attempts  at  Havana  and  later  in  Balti- 
more turned  out  equally  unsatisfactory.  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege was  a  flourishing  institution,  it  is  true,  but  it  pro- 
duced few  or  no  vocations.  Yet  these  repeated  failures 
did  not  discourage  M.  Emery,  and  on  M.  Nagot,  the  vet- 
eran superior  of  the  seminary  at  Baltimore,  they  acted 
as  a  stimulant. 

Among  the  friends  of  the  Sulpician  Fathers  in  Balti- 
more was  a  gentleman  from  Lyons,  a  Monsieur  Harent. 
Like  the  Sulpicians,  he  was  a  refugee,  expelled  from  the 
land  of  his  birth  by  the  excesses  of  the  ^Revolution.  He 
must  have  saved  some  of  his  fortune,  however,  for  after 
his  arrival  at  Baltimore  he  had  enough  means  left  to  buy 
a  farm  in  Adams  County,  Pa.,  in  the  midst  of  a  Catholic 
German  population.  Here  the  gentleman  from  the  south 
of  France,  who  lived  in  Baltimore  during  the  winter, 
spent  his  summers.  But  being  an  intelligent  and  a  pious 
man,  he  often  asked  Father  Nagot  to  pass  his  vacation  on 
his  farm,  which  was  called  Pigeon  Hill.  After  the  re- 
establishment  of  order  in  France  by  Napoleon,  M.  Harent 
felt  homesick,  and  in  1803  he  returned  to  France,  leaving 
to  Father  Nagot  his  Pennsylvania  farm.  Pigeon  Hill  was 
a  retired  place,  and  lay  in  the  midst  of  a  Catholic  popula- 
tion, which  had  preserved  its  faith  vigorous  and  earnest 
under  the  direction  of  the  old  Maryland  Jesuits.  The 
sons  of  the  German  farmers  were  zealous  and  enthusiastic. 
The  superior  of  St.  Mary's  naturally  thought  this  the 


126  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       , 

very  spot  for   a   Sulpician  preparatory  seminary.     He 
resolved  to  put  his  hand  to  the  plow  himself,  and  in  1806 
began  the  experiment.    His  pupils  consisted  only  of  boys 
who  felt  a  vocation  for  the  priesthood.     Of  such  candi- 
dates, he  found  about  a  dozen  among  the  German  farmers 
scattered  throughout  the  neighborhood,  to  whom  for  two 
years  the  veteran  professor  of  theology  and  philosophy 
undertook  to  teach  the  rudiments  of  Latin.     M.  Roloff, 
himself  a  German,  was  his  assistant,  and  perhaps  one  or 
other  seminarian  from  Baltimore  also  aided  him.    Studies 
flourished  at  Friendly  Hall,  as  the  new  institution  was 
called.     Nevertheless,  it  was  not  destined  to  last,  for  in 
1808  M.  ISTagot  returned  to  Baltimore.    Pigeon  Hill  had 
been  given  up  or  rather  consolidated  with  a  new  institu- 
tion, Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg.    Of  the  stu- 
dents of  Pigeon  Hill  three  became  priests,  namely,  Messrs. 
Moynahan,  Schoenfelder,  and  Wheeler. 

Of  all  the  collegiate  institutions  founded  by  the  Sul- 
picians,  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg,  is  the 
only  one  which  still  exists.    When  we  say  "collegiate"  in- 
stitutions, we  mean  institutions  not  restricting  their  work 
to  the  education  of  candidates  for  the  priesthood.     Still, 
Mount  St.  Mary's  at  its  origin  was  intended,  no  less  than 
Pigeon  Hill,  or  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  to  be  a 
lower   seminary  for  clerical  candidates.      When,   about 
1805,  M.  Dubourg  had  thrown  open  St.  Mary's  College  to 
American  youths  in  general  and  was  preparing  to  accept 
a  university  charter  from  the  Maryland  Legislature,  he 
felt  that  he  was  stepping  aside  from  the  strict  line  of 
work  for  which  M.  Olier  had  founded  his  congregation. 
He  regretted  this  as  much  as  did  M.  Nagot  or  M.  Emery, 
but  he  was  obeying  the  dictates  of  necessity.    At  this  very 
time  we  find  him  writing  to  his  friend,  M.  Dubois,  who 
was  then  the  pastor  of  Frederick,  urging  and  encouraging 
him  to  start  a  lower  seminary  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 


OTHEE  SUBSIDIABIES  OF  ST.   MARY'S  SEMINARY        127 

word  on  the  slopes  of  the  Blue  Ridge  in  Western  Mary- 
land. 

M.  John  Dubois,  from  1808  a  member  of  St.  Sulpice, 
was  born  at  Paris  on  August  24,  1764.1  His  father,  who 
left  him  an  orphan  in  early  youth,  was  a  respectable  bour- 
geois. He  had  married  a  woman  of  sterling  character, 
great  intelligence,  and  deep  religious  convictions.  She 
was  able  to  pay  for  her  boy's  classical  education  at  the 
College  Louis  le  Grand,  where  he  was  the  classmate  of 
two  of  the  most  notorious  champions  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, the  pitiless  Maximilien  Robespierre,  and  that  wild 
journalist,  Camille  Desmoulins.  M.  Dubois  never  forgot 
Robespierre,  who  was  no  more  attractive  in  his  youth  than 
he  proved  to  be  in  the  days  of  his  manhood.  As  a  stu- 
dent young  Dubois  was  a  gifted  scholar,  especially  in 
the  classics,  and  a  young  man  of  determined  character, 
imaginative,  but  restraining  his  imagination  by  love  of 
truth  and  principle.  When,  early  in  the  eighties  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  he  had  finished  his  classical  studies,  he 
felt  a  strong  call  to  the  priesthood,  and  entered  the  Sem- 
inary of  St-Magloire,  which  was  directed  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  Oratory.  There  he  was  the  contemporary  of  the 
later  Cardinal  Cheverus  and  of  the  celebrated  Jesuit  ora- 
tor, Abbe  Macarthy.  He  was  no  less  respected  by  his 
fellow-students  for  his  solid  qualities  than  beloved  be- 
cause of  his  affability. 

After  his  ordination,  on  September  22,  1787,  he  was 
appointed  chaplain  of  an  institution  for  the  insane  and 
for  orphans  in  the  Rue  de  Sevres  in  Paris,  which  was  in 
charge  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  of  St  Vincent  de  Paul. 
The  experience  he  gathered  here  was  of  great  value  to 
him  when  he  became  the  guide  and  adviser  of  Mother 
Seton,  at  Emmitsburg.  Only  a  few  years  after  his  ordi- 
nation the  madness  of  the  Revolution  drove  him,  like  so 

iFor  a  more  detailed  biography,  see  "Historical  Records  and  Studlea," 
vol.  1,  pp.  278-355. 


128  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

many  other  French  priests,  to  leave  his  country,  and  he 
determined  to  take  refuge  in  the  United  States.  At  the 
request  of  his  Parisian  friends,  La  Fayette  gave  him 
letters  of  introduction  to  a  number  of  eminent  Virginians, 
such  as  Patrick  Henry,  James  Monroe,  the  future  Presi- 
dent, the  Lees,  Eandolphs,  and  Beverleys.  By  these  he 
was  warmly  welcomed  when,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven, 
he  arrived  in  Virginia  in  1791.  Patrick  Henry  even 
taught  him  the  English  language.  His  friendly  reception 
no  doubt  was  partly  due  to  La  Fayette's  warm  recom- 
mendations, but  partly  also  to  his  own  elegant  manners 
and  attractive  qualities.  Even  in  his  old  age,  when  he 
was  Bishop  of  New  York,  Andrew  Jackson  declared  him 
to  be  the  most  refined  gentleman  he  had  ever  met.  He 
was  full  of  life  and  a  ready  talker.  For  children  he  al- 
ways showed  great  sympathy.  Quick  of  speech,  quick  of 
wit,  quick  of  conception,  he  was  also  quick  of  temper.  In 
short,  he  was  in  all  respects  a  good  representative  of  the 
well-bred  Parisian. 

The  first  two  years  of  M.  Dubois'  American  life  were 
spent  in  mastering  the  English  language  and  in  mission- 
ary excursions  throughout  different  districts  of  Virginia, 
undertaken  from  his  headquarters  at  Mr.  Monroe's  resi- 
dence. In  1795,  however,  Bishop  Carroll  entrusted  him 
with  the  pastorship  at  Frederick,  Md.,  to  succeed  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Frambach,  who  had  become  unable  to  fulfil  his 
duties  as  a  missionary  owing  to  the  weight  of  his  years. 
He  soon  felt  himself  at  home  in  every  part  of  his  parish, 
which  extended  from  Frederick  over  Western  Maryland 
and  even  beyond.  A  great  part  of  his  time  was  spent  on 
horseback.  He  rode  from  county  to  county,  from  State 
to  State,  visiting  his  scattered  flock  and  becoming  the 
friend  of  all,  especially  of  the  children. 

In  this  way  he  became  acquainted  with  the  Catholics 
who  dwelt  about  Emmitsburg  and  at  the  foot  of  the  wooded 


OTHER  SUBSIDIARIES  OF  ST.   MARv's  SEMINARY        129 

Blue  Ridge.  This  spot  exerted  a  peculiar  charm  over  him 
and  he  never  tired  of  chanting  its  praises  to  his  friends 
and  fellow-Sulpicians,  for  in  1808  he  was  received  into 
the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  thus  in  a  manner  devoted 
himself  to  the  cause  of  education.  M.  Dubourg  was  im- 
pressed by  his  friend's  eulogies  of  the  beauties  of  the 
Mountain  and  the  friendly  spirit  of  the  farmers  who  had 
settled  in  its  neighborhood.  Seeing  that  his  own  college, 
owing  to  the  innovations  of  1803  and  1806,  could  not 
even  imperfectly  realize  the  ideal  of  a  Sulpician  prepara- 
tory seminary,  and  being  convinced  of  the  necessity  of 
such  an  institution,  he  urged  M.  Dubois  to  establish  a 
lower  seminary  at  Emmitsburg,  writing  to  this  effect  as 
early  as  1805. 

His  friend  did  not  hesitate  long.  With  Bishop  Car- 
roll's consent,  he  turned  over  to  the  Society  of  St.  Sul- 
pice the  property  he  had  acquired  and  the  houses  and 
church  he  had  built  on  the  Mountain  even  before  he  him- 
self had  become  a  Sulpician.  Subsequently,  M.  Dubourg 
and  he  bought  five  hundred  additional  acres  at  Emmits- 
burg. The  next  year  he  bade  farewell  to  Frederick  and 
settled  on  the  Mountain.  In  1808  he  opened  a  school, 
numbering  seven  scholars.1  These  included  a  Pennsyl- 
vania named  Lilly  and  probably  the  sons  of  mountain 
villagers.  Some  of  the  scholars  boarded  with  M.  Dubois 

i  This  current  account  of  the  beginning  of  the  college  does  not  Mem 
to  be  well  established  In  fact.     M.  Dubois  doubtless  gave  the  Mountain 
congregation  special  attention  while  he  was  building  the  mission  churc 
thorr-  in   1S07.   but  th.-r.-  i-  n.>  •  •virl.Ti.-.-  to  sli«,w   th:.r   h-  IKH!  j-uj.iN  -n   !, 
hands  at  the  time.     In  one  of  the  earliest  public  notices  of  tie  college 
that  of  the  "Laity's  Directory"  of  1822.  M.  Dnbois  himself  gives    £M  -.>.- 
the  year  of  the  foundation,  and  his  statement  agrees  with  the  records  of 
St?  Mary's  Seminary.     On  November  10,  1808    M.  Dubpurg  and  a  builder 
named  Weiss  went  to  the  Mountain  to  plan  the  buildings  °f  the  college. 
M.  Dubois  spent  some  days  at  the  seminary  in  X™*£"***  fig**^ 
and  was  received  Into  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  December  8    1808 
superior,   M.  Nagot,  sent  him  to  Emmitsburg  to  Improve  the  farm  and 
to  direct  the  construction  of  the  college,  and  he  resigned  his  charge  of 
Frederick  on   Mar  ch21.    1809.     On  April  26  of  that  year  MM.   rfagot 
Dubonrg  and  Cooper,   with   three  students  for  the  new  college,  arr  ved 
at  Emmitsburg,  and  M.  Nagot  spent  the  month  of  May  withal.  Dnbois. 
About  that  time  the  Pigeon  Hifl  students  were  transferred  to  Emmits- 
burg, but  as  the  new  buildings  were  not  ready  they  were  lodged.  som 1 
a  brick  house,  some  In  M.  Dubois'  log  house   (See  Shea,  'The  Life  and 
Times  of  Archbishop  Carroll,"  vol.  Ill,  p.  343).     A.  B. 


130  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

and  others  in  the  neighboring  houses,  while  the  classes 
were  held  in  a  little  brick  building  near  by.  This  was 
the  cradle  of  Mount  St.  Mary's,  Eminitsburg,  which  soon 
became  a  household  word  among  the  Catholics  of  the 
United  States.  M.  Dubois  was  almost  the  entire  faculty, 
for  he  had  only  one  assistant.  Messrs.  Smith  and  Moyna- 
han J  were  his  first  adjunct  professors,  and  each  of  them 
stayed  only  one  year. 

Meanwhile  the  energetic  college  president,  assisted 
financially  by  the  Baltimore  Sulpicians,  had  built  two 
more  log  houses  to  receive  the  students.  In  the  spring  of 
1809  his  academic  family  was  increased  by  all  the  stu- 
dents of  Pigeon  Hill,  sixteen  in  number,  making  a  total 
of  twenty-three.  In  1811  these  had  increased  so  as  to 
number  forty,  and  in  1812  sixty.  The  faculty  grew  apace. 

Sixty  students,  of  course,  made  a  respectable  begin- 
ning for  a  preparatory  seminary.  But  before  long  M. 
Dubois  was  face  to  face  with  the  same  difficulties  that 
turned  St.  Mary's  College  into  a  general  institution  of 
learning.  The  Baltimore  Sulpicians  were  proud  of  their 
new  institution  and  omitted  nothing  that  might  inspire 
the  professors  and  students  with  a  feeling  of  brotherhood. 
The  Emmitsburg  boys  came  to  attend  the  commencement 
exercises  at  Baltimore,  and  the  vacation  students  of  the 
Baltimore  college,  together  with  such  of  their  teachers  as 
were  free,  spent  a  part  of  the  summer  on  the  Mountain. 
As  M.  Dubois'  building  operations  required  more  money, 
the  brethren  at  Baltimore  at  first  generously  provided  for 
the  needs  of  the  Mountain.  M.  Tessier,  the  superior  of 
the  Baltimore  seminary,  at  times  made  tours  of  inspection 
to  Emmitsburg,  and  the  Baltimore  faculty  deliberated  re- 
garding the  future  of  St.  Mary's  on  the  Mountain. 

At  first  all  the  Emmitsburg  boys  were  certainly  Catho- 

1  MM.  Smith  and  Moynahan  (Monahan)  were  recruits  from  Pigeon  Hill. 
In  the  following  September  four  seminarians  were  sent  from  Baltimore  to 
the  college  on  the  Mountain. 


OTHEE  SUBSIDIARIES  OF  ST.  MABY's  8EMINABY        131 

lie  and,  it  appears,  hypothetically  at  least,  candidates  for 
the  priesthood.  No  fear  was  entertained  for  the  growth 
of  the  institution,  but  when  the  superior  at  Baltimore  paid 
his  visits  to  the  Mountain,  he  found  that  its  expenses  were 
becoming  continually  more  formidable,  while  its  income 
remained  inadequate.  If  we  compare  the  development  of 
the  two  St.  Mary's  colleges  it  is  plain  that,  notwithstand- 
ing the  comparative  modesty  of  the  buildings  at  Emmits- 
burg,  the  Baltimore  institution  was  financially  the  more 
prosperous.  Evidently  the  Baltimore  students  could  be 
better  depended  upon  as  a  source  of  income  than  the 
students  on  the  Mountain,  where  not  a  few  of  them  were 
charity  students.  At  all  events,  only  a  few  years  after 
the  opening  of  Mount  St.  Mary's  College  we  find  the  ques- 
tion raised  whether  students  should  be  admitted  who  had  no 
aspiration  to  the  priesthood  or,  for  that  matter,  Protestant 
students.  In  1815  both  M.  Gamier  and  the  superior-gen- 
eral of  the  Society,  M.  Duclaux,  had  had  their  attention 
called  to  this  problem,  for  they  wrote  both  to  their  breth- 
ren at  Baltimore  and  to  the  archbishop  that  it  was  the 
wish  of  the  Sulpicians  in  Europe  to  have  the  Emmitsburg 
institution  maintained  strictly  as  a  preparatory  seminary.1 
In  1818  things  came  to  a  crisis.  The  debts  of  the  Moun- 
tain college  swelled  from  year  to  year  and  began  to  dis- 
quiet the  faculty  of  the  mother  institution,  which  had 
so  far  supplied  its  financial  needs.2  Could  they  continue 
to  supply  the  money  deficits  and  maintain  the  two  col- 
leges? Would  it  be  wiser  to  consolidate  them  into  one 
institution  or  must  the  Mountain  college  be  given  up? 
These  vital  questions  were  debated  by  the  Baltimore  Sul- 
picians, on  May  22,  1818,  at  a  meeting  at  which  Arch- 
bishop Marechal  was  present,  but  which  reached  no  final 

i  See  Andre*.     "Histoire  de  Saint  Sulpice  aux  fitats-Unis"  in  "Bulletin 


ni,'  as  legal  owner,  was  responsible  for  the  debts 
of  the  Mountain,  but  another  difficulty  arose  from  the  dearth  of  teachers. 
In  1818  there  were  only  eight  Sulpicians  to  direct  a  seminary  and  two 
colleges. 


132  THE    STTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

conclusion.  The  archbishop  opposed  the  suppression  of 
the  Emmitsburg  college,  but  was  obliged  to  leave  the  meet- 
ing while  the  question  was  still  being  discussed.  Nothing 
was  done  except  to  send  M.  Damphoux,  the  president  of 
St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  to  Emmitsburg  in  order 
to  ascertain  the  views  of  the  Emmitsburg  faculty.  These 
opposed  any  radical  measures.  Both  colleges,  they  de- 
clared, were  doing  good,  and  consequently  both  should  be 
allowed  to  exist,  at  least  for  the  time  being.  But  the  Bal- 
timore Sulpicians  considered  the  situation  critical  and 
action  urgent,  as  the  Emmitsburg  students  must  be  in- 
formed without  delay  where  they  were  to  go  in  the  fol- 
lowing September.  The  Mount  St.  Mary's  authorities 
replied  that,  before  taking  extreme  measures,  the  gen- 
eral superior  at  Paris  ought  to  be  consulted.  Perhaps, 
they  said,  it  might  be  possible  to  find  some  way  out  of  the 
difficulty  and  maintain  both  colleges,  in  view  of  the  serv- 
ices both  were  rendering  to  the  Church.  The  Baltimore 
gentlemen  thought  it  unnecessary  to  wait  or  to  trouble 
the  superiors  in  Europe  with  the  problem  which  they,  be- 
ing on  the  spot,  were  in  a  better  position  to  understand. 
When  the  vote  was  taken,  it  was  in  favor  of  suppressing 
the  college  on  the  Mountain.  M.  Tessier,  the  head  of 
the  Baltimore,  and  therefore  of  the  American  Sulpicians, 
immediately  recalled  MM.  Hickey  and  Kandanne,  who 
were  then  professors  at  Emmitsburg. 

This  step  surprised  and  shocked  the  European  superi- 
ors. M.  Gamier  communicated  with  Archbishop  Mare- 
chal  and  a  satisfactory  arrangement  was  brought  about, 
whereby  the  Emmitsburg  college  remained  a  Sulpician 
institution.  The  title  of  the  property  passed  to  M.  Du- 
bois,  who  held  it  for  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  Arch- 
bishop Marechal  allowed  his  seminarians,  then  teaching 
at  the  Mountain,  to  continue  to  do  so  for  some  years  at 
least,  and  reinforced  its  faculty  by  sending  a  newly  or- 


OTHEB  SUBSIDIABIES  OF  ST.    MAEY's  SEMINARY        133 

dained  priest,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cooper,  to  assist  M.  Dubois. 
The  two  institutions  became  entirely  independent  of  each 
other,  and  both  continued  to  take  students  who  had  no 
clerical  aspirations.  But  M.  Dubois  did  not  give  up  the 
idea  of  making  a  genuine  preparatory  seminary  of  his  in- 
stitution on  the  Mountain.  He  was  as  ardent,  indefati- 
gable, and  confident  as  ever,  and  his  college,  in  spite  of  the 
obstacles  it  encountered,  grew  and  prospered. 

For  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  more  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  Mount  St.  Mary's  and  of  becoming  acquainted 
with  its  students  and  faculty  nothing  could  be  more  use- 
ful than  a  register  of  the  professors  and  students  such 
as  we  possess  of  St.  Mary's  College  in  Baltimore.  But 
such  a  register,  as  far  as  we  know,  does  not  exist,  and  we 
must,  therefore,  strive  to  get  what  light  we  can  from  no- 
tices scattered  here  and  there  through  other  documents. 
The  head  of  the  faculty,  of  course,  was  M.  Dubois,  and 
with  all  his  kindness  and  elegance  of  manner  he  was  the 
ruler  of  the  institution.  The  boys  were  very  fond  of  him, 
but  this  did  not  prevent  them  from  calling  him  the  "little 
Napoleon,"  a  very  significant  term.  He  was  the  chief, 
not  only  in  the  church  and  the  college  and  the  adjoining 
Convent  of  St.  Joseph's,  the  mother-house  of  the  Sisters 
of  Charity,  but  in  the  carpenter  shop,  in  the  garden,  and 
on  the  farm  as  well,  directing  and  working.  But  if  he 
was  authoritative,  he  was  also  good  natured,  and  if  he 
was  a  Napoleon,  he  was  a  democratic  Napoleon,  who  was 
felt  to  be  a  father  rather  than  a  general. 

M.  Dubois'  chief  lieutenant  and  confidential  adviser 
was  M.  Simon  Brute.  We  have  already  made  his  ac- 
quaintance in  the  preceding  chapter  as  president  of  St. 
Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  where  he  succeeded  M.  Pa- 
quiet.  To  this  position  he  had  been  called  from  the  col- 
lege on  the  Mountain,  which  had  been  his  home  since  1812. 
However,  M.  Brute's  absence  from  the  Mountain  was  of 


134  THE    SUI/PICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

short  duration,  for  in  1818  he  rejoined  M.  Dubois  and 
remained  at  Emmitsburg  until  1834.  M.  Brute  supplied 
some  of  the  qualities  in  which  the  president  of  Mount 
St.  Mary's  College  was  deficient.  He  was  a  careful  man, 
slow  to  act,  but  vigorous  in  action.  In  fact,  from  1818, 
as  a  result  of  his  wise  advice,  there  was  a  remarkable  im- 
provement in  the  financial  situation  of  Mount  St.  Mary's 
College. 

Of  the  other  Sulpician  professors  at  Mount  St.  Mary's, 
we  know  M.  Randanne  chiefly  as  a  faithful  professor  at 
St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore.  There  he  spent  the  best 
part  of  his  life,  being  a  member  of  the  faculty  from  1818 
to  1852.  The  Rev.  M.  Hickey,  who  had  a  reputation  as 
a  disciplinarian  and  as  an  English  scholar,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Emmitsburg  staff  from  1814  to  1818,  when  he 
was  called  to  Baltimore.  However,  he  returned  to  the 
Mountain  in  1826,  when  this  college  was  finally  severed 
from  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  The  greater  part  of  the 
Emmitsburg  faculty  consisted  of  the  young  men  who  were 
at  the  same  time  studying  theology.  As  at  Baltimore, 
they  proved  their  competence  by  their  success.  Many 
reached  high  stations  when  they  entered  upon  their  active 
work  in  the  world.  Among  these  must  be  mentioned  John 
Hughes,  the  great  Archbishop  of  New  York. 

As  to  the  students  of  Mount  St  Mary's  College,  it  has 
been  its  well-known  distinction  from  the  beginning  to 
supply  a  large  number  of  ecclesiastics  to  the  American 
Church,  and  not  only  faithful  priests  but  also  able  bishops. 
We  have  just  mentioned  Archbishop  Hughes.  His  suc- 
cessor, Cardinal  McCloskey,  was  likewise  a  student  at 
Emmitsburg  during  the  Sulpician  period  of  the  college. 
The  cardinal's  successor,  Archbishop  Corrigan,  was  also 
an  alumnus  of  Mount  St.  Mary's,  though  at  a  later  date, 
so  that  from  1826,  when  M.  Dubois  became  Bishop  of 


OTHEE  SUBSIDIARIES  OF  ST.   MARY'S  SEMINARY        135 

New  York,  until  1902,  men  of  the  Mountain  swayed  the 
destinies  of  the  great  diocese  of  New  York. 

Among  the  other  alumni  of  Mount  St.  Mary's,  most  of 
whom  were  members  of  the  corps  of  instructors,  were 
the  future  Archbishop  of  Cincinnati,  John  B.  Purcell, 
Bishop  George  A.  Carrell  of  Covington,  Bishop  William 
Quarter  of  Chicago,  Bishop  Kichard  V.  Whelan  of  Wheel- 
ing, W.  Va.;  Rev.  William  Byrne,  the  founder  of  St. 
Mary's  College,  Kentucky,  and  many  other  distinguished 
clergymen.  Among  the  distinguished  lay  alumni  we  may 
mention  Captain  William  Seton  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  Mr.  James  McSherry,  a  graduate  of  1828,  who 
became  a  lawyer  of  note  and  wrote  a  widely  read  history 
of  Maryland. 

A  comparison  of  the  faculties  and  students  of  the  two 
St.  Mary's  colleges  establishes  the  fact  that  each  had  its 
well-marked  characteristics.  At  Baltimore  the  influence 
of  the  French  Sulpicians  always  remained  predominant. 
At  Emmitsburg,  though  MM.  Dubois  and  Brute,  whose 
influence  was  paramount  in  the  foundation  of  the  col- 
lege, were  also  French  Sulpicians,  the  American  and 
Irish-American  element  soon  grew  powerful.  At  the 
same  time,  Mount  St.  Mary's  never  had  as  large  a  rep- 
resentation of  West  Indian  students,  nor  was  the  Prot- 
estant element  as  strong  there  as  at  Baltimore.  Again, 
Mount  St.  Mary's,  though  not  strictly  a  preparatory  semi- 
nary, contributed  a  much  larger  quota  to  the  Catholic 
clergy  of  the  United  States  than  did  its  sister  institution. 
For  many  decades  it  supplied  a  large  share  of  the  bishops 
of  the  United  States,  among  them  many  men  distinguished 
by  scholarship  as  well  as  by  administrative  talent.  M. 
Dubois  was,  therefore,  correctly  inspired  when,  in  1818, 
he  insisted  with  all  his  vigor  on  the  maintenance  of  his 
beloved  Mountain  college.  He  infused  into  it  new  life, 


136  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

and  before  long  the  clearest  evidences  of  success  and,  pros- 
perity began  to  appear. 

The  scattered  frame  buildings,  which  had  hitherto  been 
the  only  homes  of  the  Mountain  muse,  were  found  to  be 
insufficient.     In  1822  the  old  president  began  to  build 
for  the  Mountain  students  a  new  home,  dignified  and 
sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  institution.    With  his  usual 
energy  he  pressed  forward  his  undertaking,  and  the  struc- 
ture was  all  but  completed  when  in  the  night  of  June  6, 
1824,  it  was  destroyed  by  fire.    M.  Dubois,  who  had  been 
aroused  from  his  bed,   stood  by  impotent  to  save  the 
structure  on  which  he  had  built  so  many  hopes.    But  the 
old  hero  was  not  discouraged.     "The  Lord  hath  given," 
he  cried  out,  "the  Lord  hath  taken  away.     Blessed  be 
the  name  of  the  Lord."     Then  he  pointed  out  to  his 
stricken  friends  the  spot  on  which  he  would  forthwith 
build  a  new  and  improved  home  for  his  students.    Events 
proved  that  M.  Dubois  was  not  too  hopeful,  for  within 
a  few  weeks  he  started  his  new  building  and  everybody 
was  ready  to  second  his  efforts.    Not  only  his  faculty  but 
his  students  spread  over  the  country  and  brought  home 
substantial  tokens  of  the  interest  which  Maryland  and 
the  adjacent  States  took  in  the  hard-tried  college.     In 
1826  the  students,  who  had  meanwhile  occupied  the  old 
frame  dwellings,  were  able  to  take  up  their  new  quarters, 
and  the  future   promised  even  more  success  than  had 
been  achieved  before  the  catastrophe.     The  fire  which 
destroyed  Mount  St.  Mary's  proved  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era  in  more  senses  than  one.    The  comparatively  new 
building  was  replaced  by  a  newer  and  better.     At  the 
same  time  the  institution  severed  its  connection  with  the 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 

M.  Dubois  was  not  to  guide  the  destinies  of  St.  Mary's 
of  the  Mountain  much  longer.  The  year  1826,  which  sev- 
ered the  connection  between  Mount  St.  Mary's  College 


OTHER  SUBSIDIARIES  OP  ST.   MARY's  SEMINARY       137 

and  the  Sulpicians,  also  severed  that  between  Mount  St. 
Mary's  and  its  founder  and  president.  Late  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1826,  the  Bulls  arrived  from  Rome  appointing 
M.  Dubois  Bishop  of  New  York.  Reluctantly  he  accepted 
the  honor  and  agreed  to  bid  farewell  to  his  beloved  college 
and  to  his  Maryland  friends.  The  retreat  preparatory 
to  his  consecration  was  made  among  his  Sulpician  breth- 
ren at  Baltimore,  who  wished  him  every  success  in  his 
new  career.  Of  his  activity  as  a  missionary  bishop,  we 
shall  speak  in  our  next  chapter. 

In  the  course  of  these  events  M.  Flaget's  attempt  to 
found  a  preparatory  clerical  school  in  the  West,  according 
to  M.  Emery's  suggestion,  had  proved  a  failure.  About 
the  same  time  as  M.  Flaget,  two  other  Sulpicians,  M. 
Levadoux  and  M.  Richard,  began  missionary  life  in  what 
was  then  called  the  Northwest,  and  to  work  there  for  the 
cause  of  clerical  education.  The  former  of  these  gentle- 
men was  an  old  professor  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice, 
who  prior  to  the  Revolution  of  1789  had  been  a  director 
in  the  Seminary  of  Limoges.  He  had  been  a  member  of 
the  first  band  of  Sulpicians  who  arrived  in  Baltimore  in 
1791.  M.  Richard  was  a  young  man  about  twenty-four 
years  of  age  who  had  just  joined  the  Society  of  St.  Sul- 
pice at  the  end  of  his  theological  studies.  He  came  to 
Baltimore  with  M.  Flaget  and  M.  Ciquard.  As  their  serv- 
ices were  not  needed  at  the  Baltimore  seminary,  Richard 
was  sent  to  the  West  by  Bishop  Carroll,  and  at  first  evan- 
gelized the  French  and  Indians  of  the  Illinois  district. 
Later  M.  Levadoux  penetrated  farther  north  and  settled 
in  Detroit,  then  a  village  of  about  2,000  souls,  mostly 
French.  In  1798  M.  Richard  came  to  Detroit,  and  jointly 
with  M.  Levadoux  attended  to  the  spiritual  needs  not  only 
of  Detroit  but  of  the  entire  Lake  region  as  far  as  Sault 
Ste.  Marie.  In  1803,  M.  Levadoux  was  recalled  to 
France  and  became  professor  of  theology  at  Saint  Flour. 


138  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

M.  Richard  remained  in  sole  charge  of  Detroit  and  its 
vicinity,  where  he  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  energetic 
and  notable  missionaries  in  the  northwest  of  the  United 
States.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enlarge  upon  his  achieve1 
ments  as  pastor  of  the  Detroit  congregation  of  St.  Anne 
nor  as  a  missionary  to  the  Indians,  our  present  concern 
being  with  his  endeavor  to  carry  out  M.  Emery's  instruc- 
tions to  start  preparatory  seminaries.  In  1804,  only  one 
year  after  M.  Levadoux's  departure  for  France  had  left 
him  superior  of  the  Detroit  mission,  he  undertook  to  es- 
tablish a  seminary  for  the  education  of  young  clerics. 
The  year  before  he  had  prepared  for  the  venture  by  found- 
ing some  elementary  schools  taught  by  ladies.  In  his 
seminary  were  taught  Latin,  geography,  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, Church  music,  and  the  practice  of  mental  prayer.1 
But  the  zealous  Sulpician's  enterprise  was  doomed  to 
speedy  destruction.  The  following  year  (1805)  his  school 
shared  the  fate  of  the  rising  village  of  Detroit  and  was 
reduced  to  ashes,  along  with  the  Church  of  St.  Anne  and 
M.  Richard's  home. 

The  story  we  have  told  in  the  present  chapter  shows 
how  loyal  to  Father  Olier's  idea  were  the  gentlemen  of  St. 
Sulpice  who  came  to  America.  Cast  out  of  their  own 
land,  refugees  in  a  strange  country,  their  first  and  their 
constant  thought  was  the  education  of  the  clergy.  Failure 
did  not  discourage  them.  Whether  in  the  East  or  in  the 
West,  the  Sulpician  missionary,  as  soon  as  he  was  settled 
in  his  new  home  gathered  about  him  young  men  who  gave 
proof  of  a  clerical  vocation.  We  can  not  help  admiring 
their  steadfastness.  They  failed  at  Baltimore,  they  failed 
at  Pigeon  Hill,  they  failed  at  Emmitsburg,  they  failed  in 
Illinois,  they  failed  at  Detroit,  but  never  even  for  a  mo- 
ment did  they  waver  in  their  loyalty  to  the  purpose  of 
their  company.  Their  almost  grim  determination  to  stand 

1  See  Rev.  John  J.  O'Brien,  "The  Rev.  Gabriel  Richard,  Educator,  States- 
man, and  Priest"  in  "Historical  Records,  and  Studies,"  vol.  v,  p.  81. 


OTHEB  SUBSIDIAEIES   OF  ST.  MABY's  SEMINARY       139 

by  the  program  of  MM.  Olier  and  Emery  is  a  characteris- 
tic of  their  endeavors  and  their  history.  That  is  the 
principal  moral  to  be  drawn  from  the  story  we  have  re- 
cited. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  SULPICIAN  MISSIONARY  BISHOPS  AND  MISSIONARIES 

In  one  particular  M.  Olier  had  deviated  from  the  prin- 
cipal aim  and  ideal  of  the  Company  he  founded.  The 
seventeenth  century  was  for  the  Church  of  France,  as 
well  as  for  the  Church  in  general,  a  great  missionary 
period.  To  the  West  as  well  as  to  the  East  bands  of  zeal- 
ous, nay,  heroic  men,  set  forth  to  bring  the  glad  tidings  of 
the  Gospel.  M.  Olier  did  not  resist  this  universal  cur- 
rent, and  sent  his  brethren  to  Montreal  to  share  in  the 
glorious  work  of  conquering  the  children  of  the  redman 
and  gathering  them  into  Christ's  fold.  When,  therefore, 
the  wild  fanaticism  of  the  French  Revolution  drove  out 
a  large  part  of  M.  Olier's  sons  to  seek  refuge  in  America, 
the  never  quailing  chief  of  the  Company,  M.  Emery,  saw 
in  M.  Olier's  settlement  of  Montreal  a  warrant  for  send- 
ing his  confreres  forth  as  missionaries  to  gain  over  to 
Christ's  flock  both  the  whitemen  and  the  redmen  of  the 
new  world. 

We  must  not  be  understood  as  representing  M.  Emery 
as  an  obstinate  idealist,  for  apart  from  M.  Olier's  example 
many  weighty  reasons  almost  compelled  him  to  embrace 
this  policy.  With  difficulty  did  the  new  Republic  main- 
tain one  seminary,  and  only  a  few  of  the  sons  of  M.  Olier 
could  be  employed  directly  in  the  cause  of  sacerdotal  train- 
ing. On  the  other  hand,  the  cry  for  missionaries  was 
loud  and  insistent  from  every  quarter.  The  forests  of 
Maine,  the  islands  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  prairies  of 
the  Mississippi  valley  all  clamored  for  black  robes  to 

140 


6ULPICIAS    M1SSIONABT    B.SHOPS    AT.D   MM8IO1.AMES      141 

spread  the  Gospel  among  the  native  children  of  the  lani 
The  adventurous  countrymen  of  Champla.i -J"*  «£ 
Salle  craved  for  missionaries  to  succeed  Brebeuf,  Jo 
Marquette    and   Hennepin,    and   the   youn«   Amencan 
SS  Blowing  in  the  footsteps  of  her  Europe^ 
ters    was  keenly  conscious  of  her  duty  to  place  her 
ties"  d  her  Sample  before  the  separated  brethren  who 
al?  centuries  of  persecution,  had  ^ ^olumb - 
hospitable  doors  to  Catholics  as  well  as  to  other  Chn 

Now  the  Sulpicians  were  at  the  time  the  only  apostles 
of  Catholicism'in  a  position  to  satisfy  £«*»^ 

st  va  r-rrese  sr  s;  « 

S,  W.,  and  the  polish,  gentleness  and  ^*f^ 

aat?s£'<S*S£? 

dence  had  ordained  *at  "thers  o     he  ^ntlem 

sw±rth: 

our  great 

S 

body  of  churchmen 


142     THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

were  growing  few  and  feeble  through  age.  Accidental  ar- 
rivals from  divers  countries  of  Europe  were  of  various 
merit  and  unfit  for  concerted  effort,  and  learning  for  the 
most  part  was  not  a  striking  feature  in  their  equipment, 
while  naturally  enough  their  manners  were  marked  by 
energy  rather  than  by  elegance. 

In  most  respects  the  Sulpicians  presented  a  distinct  con- 
trast to  these  accidental  apostles.  They  were  received  by 
American  gentlemen  as  representatives  of  the  faithful 
allies  of  struggling  America.  Learning  was  their  profes- 
sion, inasmuch  as  they  were  dedicated  to  a  life  of  scholar- 
ship. They  claimed  the  sympathies  of  the  Americans  as 
educators.  Controversy  they  avoided  as  much  as  possible, 
but  when  it  did  come  their  intellectual  war  was  carried 
on  in  a  way  that  convinced  their  adversaries  that  the  con- 
quest they  sought  was  peace  and  agreement.  In  France, 
while  they  sought  retirement  on  principle,  many  of  them 
had  been  by  circumstance  brought  into  contact  with  the 
scholars  and  aristocratic  world  of  pre-Kevolutionary  times. 
Besides  all  these  attractions  they  were  strangers,  not  Eng- 
lishmen, and  the  very  imperfection  with  which  they  spoke 
the  English  language  added  piquancy,  interest  and  charm 
to  their  conversation.  Above  all  they  were  models  of 
Christian  life,  not  only  modest  and  retiring,  but  ever  ready 
to  do  service  to  friend  and  foe,  charitable  without  narrow- 
ness, zealous  without  aggressiveness,  elegant  without  ef- 
feminacy, dignified  without  pride. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  such  men  were  almost  pre- 
destined to  become  leaders  in  the  young  Church  of  the 
new  world,  and  naturally  it  is  not  at  all  remarkable  to 
find  a  large  number  of  the  early  prelates  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church  taken  from  the  ranks  of  the  pious  and  learned 
sons  of  St.  Sulpice.  Their  lives  and  their  gentle  achieve- 
ments were  not  the  least  part  of  the  history  of  St.  Sulpice 
in  America,  though  of  course  their  elevation  to  the  episco- 


RT.  RKV.  BENEDICT  JOSEPH  FI-ACKT. 
First  Bishop  of  Bardstow.i. 


SITLPICIAN    MISSIONABY    BISHOPS    AND    MI8SIONAKIE8       143 

pate  broke  to  some  extent  the  ties  between  them  and  their 
Company.  However,  though  no  one  felt  this  rupture 
more  than  these  loyal  Sulpicians  themselves,  still  in  some 
respects  it  was  more  apparent  than  real.  They  ceased  to 
be  Sulpicians  but  the  spirit  of  St.  Sulpice  never  departed 
from  them.  They  remained  the  same  zealous,  modest  lov- 
ers of  learning;  they  were  animated  by  the  same  earnest- 
ness in  the  cause  of  clerical  education,  and  in  truth  of 
all  education;  they  were  the  same  indefatigable  laborers; 
they  led  the  same  democratic  life  of  simplicity  which  dis- 
tinguished them  as  seminary  professors.  The  history  of 
the  Sulpicians  would  be  incomplete  without  a  sketch  of 
these  devoted  and  noble  representatives  of  their  Company 
and  the  Church. 


I — RIGHT  REVEREND  BENEDICT  JOSEPH  FLAGET,  S.S. 

The  first  member  of  M.  Olier's  Society  to  become  the 
shepherd  of  a  flock  in  the  United  States  was  in  many  ways, 
heart  and  soul,  a  typical  Sulpician.  We  speak  of  Bishop 
Flaget.  The  command  of  the  Holy  Father  severed  his 
immediate  connection  with  his  brethren,  but  to  the  end 
of  his  life  the  principles  and  instincts  which  characterize 
a  true  Sulpician  filled  his  heart  and  guided  his  actions. 
Bishop  Flaget  was  an  Auvergnat,  having  been  born  in  the 
small  town  of  Contournat  in  1763.  He  was  brought  up 
by  the  Sulpicians  and  joined  the  Company  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty.  Even  before  his  ordination  in  1788  he 
was  professor  of  dogma  at  Nantes  in  Brittany,  and  imme- 
diately after  his  ordination  we  find  him  a  professor  of  the 
theological  faculty  at  Angers,  where  he  remained  until 
his  departure  for  Baltimore,  in  1792. 

He  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  prime  of  his  man- 
hood, a  thorough  Sulpician  by  education  and  by  practice. 
Though  his  family  was  not  distinguished,  his  parents  be- 


-1  .     .  -      l    i~-l 

TT  -TTffir.     JLi  i^  s£3iff  tanff  ic  -was  Igrtfc.  SnnB 


ae»  off  H.  EBBSHT,, 
o^tt  5ir  i  izne-  jod  IB  leaJmaartEr 
mi 

i-^rii-   r^ 


:?*  zx  l^OL    Hs»  le  Inane  a  •OHO-  of  tdk* 


u:  STL  ILtr*^  .In  n 


mn 

tftc  «adniBad   HBsiB.    In. 


I  '.-  M"jrv  "TfM  rmni  ftwflflnp 


i  «e  in  lie  atut*  r^nff-  t&ri 


iranosAKT  BZBHOTS  ASTD  •  •MHHJIII     145 


for  this  pocztaon,  which  pnetaeallT  COB- 
mitted  to  his  charge  the  eatire  Xorthweet  a*  far  a*  Michi- 
gan, and  ulimkJ  aueikwmrd  BO  as  to  include  Temeone. 

Bishop  Carron  thought  K  Flaget  especially  fitted  for 
the  see  of  Bardstown  because  of  his  virtoea,  his 
qualities  as  a  ruler  and  his  acquaintance  with 
with  •hueu  spiritual  government  he  was  to  he 
But  M.  Flaget  was  wholly  oneoosooBS  of  all  this,  being 
conrinced  that  «**ffc**'  hi«  Aeoloneal  learning  nor  fci« 
other  weD-txied  qualities  fitted  him  for  the  position  of 
bishop.  Beeideihadbe  not  promised  never  to  mjuiflo  an 
episcopal  see  and  never  to  accept  one  except  bj  the 
torv  orders  of  the  Holy  Father  ?  When  therefore  die 
of  his  elevation  reached  him  at  Finmiiahaig,  he  hurried 
down  to  BaMmore  and  set  every  e  ipmlifM  in  motion  to 
nullify  the  Bull  The  fett  man  he  met  on  reaching  the 
Seminary  was  34-  David,  whom  rumor  had  designated  for 
the  see  of  Bardstown.  and  who  took  tike  htshop-efect  by 
Ike  haad,  gufE1'**1"^1*11^  liim  and  offered  to  go  to  Ken- 
tocky  to  aasi^  him.  M.  Flaget  thanked  him  for  his  offer, 
MBiiiiii^  Kim  that  had  M.  David  been  named  Bishop  of 
Bardstown  he  •would  here  offered  his  own  earricee  to  him. 
Them  M.  Flaget  aied  tiie  advice  of  ti»e  other  Baltimore 
Snlpicians.  They  prayed  and  fasted  for  several  days  and 
then  resolved  that  every  effort  should  be  made  to  avert 
the  misfortune  which  threatened  1L  Flaget  They  went 
to  Bishop  Carroll,  told  him  of  their  prayers  and  fasting 
and  begged  him  to  use  his  utmost  efforts  to  turn  aside  die 
threatened  catastrophe.  The  bishop  liatmd  jieliiellj  and 
riM»  Msuiul  them  that  he  had  also  prayed,  and  not  only  he, 
but  the  Holy  Father. 

The  result  of  these  protests  was  that   Bishop  Car- 
roll wrote  both  to  M.  Emery  and  to  the  Pope. 
M.  Flaget  was  hopeful    When  he  received  no 
M.  Emerv  nor  from  the  Holy  Father,  he  started  off  to 


146  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

France,  for  M.  Emery,  he  thought,  would  surely  help  him. 
When  he  entered  his  room,  M.  Emery  received  him  with 
the  words :  "My  Lord  Bishop,  you  should  be  in  your  dio- 
cese." This  sentence  came  like  a  thunder-clap.  Then  M. 
Emery  told  him  that  he  had  just  received  a  letter  from  the 
papal  authorities  bidding  M.  Flaget  accept  the  episcopal 
dignity,  and  made  him  prepare  at  once  to  attend  to  his 
duties.  The  loyal  Sulpician  did  not  appreciate  his  su- 
perior's display  of  authority.  He  complained  that  he 
was  not  being  treated  fairly,  that  he  had  been  always  a 
faithful  Sulpician,  had  worked  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Company  and  had  said  three  Masses  for  each  of  his  de- 
ceased confreres,  expecting  that  the  Company  would  do 
the  like  by  him  at  his  death,  but  that  now,  being  cast  out 
of  the  Society,  he  would  lose  this  advantage.  The  Superior 
General  began  to  console  him.  "You  will  not  cease  to  be 
a  member  of  the  Society,"  he  declared,  "for  you  accept 
the  bishop's  miter  in  obedience  to  my  mandate.  Moreover, 
I  will  see  to  it  that  when  you  die  every  Sulpician  shall  say 
three  Masses  for  you."  M.  Flaget  was  checkmated  and 
bowing  to  the  inevitable,  secured  what  assistance  he  could 
in  France  and  prepared  to  return  to  the  new  world. 

When  the  Superior  General  bade  him  farewell,  he  was 
unusually  cordial,  agreeing  to  allow  M.  David  to  go  to 
Bardstown  to  help  the  bishop  for  at  least  three  years. 
Moreover,  he  gave  him  two  presents,  a  box  of  needles  and 
a  French  cook  book.  The  former,  he  said,  belonged  to 
the  necessary  outfit  of  every  good  bishop,  while  the  latter 
might  prove  valuable,  as  some  of  his  future  lambs  had 
not  yet  learned  European  cookery,  and  the  bishop  might 
stand  in  sore  need  of  a  French  culinary  hand-book.  Armed 
with  these  and  many  other  gifts,  among  them  some  vest- 
ments highly  valued  by  the  Sulpicians  and  a  chalice  which 
had  belonged  to  M.  Olier,  and  which  is  now  at  St.  Mary's 
Seminary,  he  came  back  to  Baltimore.  Bishop  Carroll 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONABY    BISHOPS    AND    MI8SIONABIE8       147 

he  declared,  and  no  one  else,  should  consecrate  him,  for 
it  was  he  who  had  put  this  burden  upon  him. 

As  soon  as  he  was  consecrated,  he  planned  to  go  to  his 
diocese,  but  alas !  he  lacked  the  needed  means.  M.  Badin, 
whom  he  had  named  vicar  general,  offered  to  collect  the 
necessary  money  in  Kentucky,  but  the  bishop  would  not 
hear  of  beginning  his  activity  by  imposing  a  tax  on  his 
people.  Fortunately  his  Baltimore  friends  were  ready  to 
help  him,  and  in  May,  1810,  he  made  his  entry  into  Bards- 
town.  He  was  received  cordially  by  both  clergy  and  laity, 
though  neither  were  formidable  on  account  of  their  num- 
bers. Kentucky,  which  was  the  heart,  so  to  speak,  of  his 
diocese,  numbered  about  six  thousand  Catholics,  divided 
up  into  thirty  congregations,  each  consisting  on  an  average 
of  about  two  hundred  souls.  But  only  ten  of  these  con- 
gregations had  a  church,  the  rest  worshiping  wherever  they 
could  find  a  home.  The  Dominicans  had  a  primitive  mon- 
astery dedicated  to  St.  Rose  and  a  few  of  the  secular  pas- 
tors had  plain  residences.  These  buildings  together  with 
six  plantations  constituted  the  wealth  of  the  Church  in 
Bishop  Flaget's  diocese  proper. 

Outside  of  Kentucky,  the  new  prelate  also  governed  all 
the  faithful  to  be  found  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  upper 
Mississippi  including  Indiana,  Illinois  and  even  Michi- 
gan, as  well  as  the  few  Catholics  settled  in  Tennessee.  The 
Kentucky  Catholics  were  mostly  pioneer  descendants  of 
Maryland  emigrants,  while  the  Catholics  to  the  north  of 
Kentucky  were  French  Creoles  who  had  spread  southward 
from  Canada.  In  the  Illinois  country  and  in  Michigan 
many  Indians  were  still  to  be  found,  a  number  of  them 
Catholics,  whose  ancestors  had  been  converted  by  Jesuits 
and  other  priests,  while  many  were  pagans.  The  Bishop 
of  Bardstown,  therefore,  had  a  flock  demanding  all  the  skill 
and  resources  of  a  wise  and  energetic  shepherd.  Mon- 


148     THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

seigneur  Flaget  lost  no  time  in  proving  both  his  wisdom 
and  his  vigor. 

The  history  of  the  Sulpicians  does  not  call  for  the  de- 
tailed story  of  the  episcopal  activities  of  the  Sulpicians 
who  were  placed  in  charge  of  bishoprics,  but  in  the  case 
of  Bishop  Flaget  we  shall  feel  ourselves  justified  in  laying 
before  our  readers  a  more  detailed  picture  of  his  work, 
especially  inasmuch  as  this  illustrates  the  Sulpician  aims 
and  spirit.  Moreover,  if  in  the  case  of  other  Sulpician 
bishops  we  refrain  from  entering  with  equal  fullness  on 
their  history,  our  picture  of  Bishop  Flaget's  doings  will 
enable  our  readers  to  fill  in  more  satisfactorily  the  story 
of  these  good  and  worthy  prelates.  Nor  shall  we  feel 
ourselves  bound  to  follow  the  chronological  order  in  every 
particular.  We  shall  group  the  facts  with  a  view  to  make 
them  show  most  vividly  what  kind  of  a  man  Bishop  Flaget 
was  and  to  what  extent  he  represented  the  Sulpician  type.1 

The  Sulpician,  we  must  repeat,  is  first  and  foremost  an 
educator  of  clerics.  Hence  one  of  the  first  works  taken 
in  hand  by  the  new  bishop  was  the  formation  of  a  native 
clergy,  trained  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  good  pastors.  M. 
Emery  had  promised  the  bishop-elect  the  loan  of  M.  David 
for  three  years,  which  meant  that  even  then  the  bishop 
and  the  superior  general  had  resolved  that  one  of  the  first 
measures  of  the  new  administration  was  to  be  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  seminary.  We  use  the  word  organization  because 
neither  the  diocese  nor  the  bishop  had  the  means  allowing 
them  to  think  of  erecting  even  a  very  modest  building. 
Bishop  Flaget  lost  no  time,  but  forthwith  appointed  M. 

1  Fortunately,  Bishop  M.  J.  Spalding  of  Louisville,  one  of  Bishop  Flaget's 
closest  friends,  who  was  Intimately  associated  with  his  later  days,  who 
became  his  successor,  and  ultimately  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  has  left  us 
a  most  interesting  Life  of  Bishop  Flaget.  It  Is  to  a  great  extent  based 
upon  Bishop  Flaget's  diary,  which  not  only  records  his  doings  but  por- 
trays the  inner  life  of  the  man  ;  his  piety,  modesty,  fear  of.  and  trust  in 
God,  his  unselfishness,  devotion  to  duty  and  love  of  his  clergy  and  his 
flock.  It  is  in  every  way  an  admirable  work,  not  only  edifying  but  con- 
vincing and  placing  before  the  reader  an  undistorted  and  unadorned  pic- 
ture. We  commend  to  all  our  readers  these  "Sketches  of  the  Life.  Times 
«nd  Character  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Benedict  J.  Flaget,  First  Bishop  of  Louis- 
ville," 8vo.,  Louisville,  1852. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       149 

David  superior  of  the  seminary.  At  first  he  constituted 
the  entire  faculty,  but  in  the  course  of  time  the  faculty 
increased,  and  the  priests  sent  forth  by  the  seminary  are 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  excellence  of  the  spirit  and 
methods  of  M.  David  and  his  assistants. 

As  a  missionary,  the  new  bishop  had  before  him  the 
example  of  the  early  Sulpicians  sent  by  M.  Olier  to 
Canada  and  an  extensive  missionary  field.  Like  the 
Canadian  Sulpicians  he  did  not  neglect  the  Indians,  but 
in  his  missionary  activity,  as  in  everything  else,  he  com- 
bined zeal,  energy  and  method.  During  the  first  years  of 
his  episcopate  he  did  not  personally  go  outside  of  Ken- 
tucky, but  that  territory  would  make  a  very  respectable 
European  kingdom.  Besides  he  was  a  bishop  without  a 
cathedral,  for  it  would  be  misleading  to  give  this  title  to 
the  chapel  of  St.  Stephen,  now  Loretto,  where  his  vicar 
general,  Father  Badin,  had  resided,  and  where  a  log 
cabin  sixteen  by  sixteen  was  his  palace.  He  had  therefore 
plenty  of  work  before  him  at  home.  Nevertheless  we 
learn  that  during  the  first  four  months  of  the  year  1812 
he  traveled  eight  hundred  miles,  visiting  various  missions. 
These  visits  he  usually  made  on  horseback  and  when  his 
work  took  him  beyond  the  line  of  the  more  civilized  dis- 
tricts, it  was  not  uncommon  for  him  to  sleep  in  the  open 
air  under  the  clear  sky  of  heaven.  Of  course,  after  1814, 
when  he  extended  his  missionary  trips  beyond  Kentucky 
to  Vincennes,  Indiana  and  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  he  rode 
much  longer  distances  and  had  probably  much  tougher 
fare.  Still  we  do  not  hear  of  his  having  had  recourse  to 
the  French  cook  book  presented  to  him  by  M.  Emery.  His 
vicar  general,  the  Reverend  Stephen  Badin,  claimed  to 
have  ridden  more  than  100,000  miles  on  his  missionary 
tours.  We  have  no  records  enabling  us  to  calculate  pre- 
cisely how  many  miles  Bishop  Flaget  traveled,  but  we  may 
safely  assume  that  his  journeys  covered  tens  of  thousands 


150  THE    STJLPICIANS   IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

of  miles.  Nor  were  his  travels  always  pleasant  tours,  the 
rides  being  at  times  too  lengthy  for  such  a  purpose.  In 
the  year  1818  he  extended  his  journey  farther  northward 
and  on  May  26th  reached  Fort  Finley,  Ohio. 

The  traveler's  comforts  he  enjoyed  here  were  not  en- 
chanting. There  was  but  one  bed-room  for  fourteen  or 
fifteen  guests.  They  spread  their  blankets  on  a  very  rough 
floor  and  slept  as  well  as  they  could.  The  menu  for 
breakfast  was  of  the  simplest,  bacon  being  the  meat  on 
the  occasion  and  corn  bread  the  only  cereal  product  served. 
Both  were  prepared  by  the  landlady  and  her  daughters, 
who,  as  well  as  the  other  attendants,  were  suffering  from 
the  itch.  The  guests  drank  from  the  same  vessels  as  the 
attendants  and  we  may  doubt  whether  the  usual  condi- 
ments were  at  hand.  At  all  events,  on  the  day  before  the 
bishop  had  met  and  ministered  to  a  party  of  Indians,  and 
the  squaws,  to  express  their  gratitude,  had  presented  his 
lordship  with  a  pound  or  two  of  sugar.  We  may  infer 
that  sugar  was  not  too  plentiful  near  Fort  Finley.  To 
these  discomforts  we  must  add  the  almost  universal  ab- 
sence of  roads.  Where  roads  existed  they  were  rude  and 
elementary,  and  the  traveler  on  horseback  had  frequently 
to  struggle  with  branches  and  underbrush  as  well  as  with 
swamps.  Moreover,  we  must  not  forget  the  rains,  against 
which  in  this  sparsely  settled  country  there  was  but  little 
shelter. 

But  there  were  other  inconveniences  which  our  episcopal 
traveler  had  to  face.  In  fact,  to  a  cultured  man  with  a 
delicate  conscience  they  were  even  more  annoying  and  more 
torturing  than  the  physical  trials  to  which  we  have  called 
attention.  If  we  refer  to  Bishop  Flaget's  diary,  we 
find  that  in  the  year  1817,  when  returning  from  St.  Louis 
to  Bardstown  by  way  of  Illinois,  he  came  to  an  inn  whose 
principal  room,  according  to  Bishop  Spalding,  was 
"crowded  with  wagoners,  who  did  nothing  but  utter  con- 


STJLPICIAN    MI8SIONAEY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       151 

tinually  the  most  horrible  oaths  and  blasphemies.  For- 
tunately a  negro  man  came  in,  who  began  playing  on  the 
violin,  left-handed,  while  a  negress  danced!  The  back- 
woodsmen stopped  their  swearing,  in  their  admiration  of 
the  remarkable  fiddler  and  the  novel  danseuse.  Even  the 
Bishop  could  not  refrain  from  laughing  at  the  grotesque 
scene,  while  he  blessed  God  for  having  thus  put  an  end 
to  blasphemies  so  revolting;  and  though  he  heartily  dis- 
liked dancing  on  all  occasions,  yet  he  now  willingly  tol- 
erated it,  as  the  less  of  two  evils." 

During  a  later  trip  to  Indiana  we  come  upon  another 
incident  illustrating  the  uncouth  character  of  the  people 
whom  traveling  missionaries  were  likely  to  encounter.  On 
this  occasion  Bishop  Flaget  had  with  him  as  traveling 
companion  the  Reverend  Mr.  Abell,  a  refined  young 
American.  "They  put  up  for  the  night,"  says  Bishop 
Spalding,  "at  a  way-side  house  of  entertainment,  which 
was  a  one  story  log  cabin,  with  a  garret  or  loft,  approached 
by  a  ladder.  The  prelate  and  his  companion  lodged  in 
this  garret,  the  floor  of  which  was  covered  with  loose 
boards ;  while  the  family  and  some  wagoners  occupied  the 
lower  room.  The  Bishop  had  an  alarm  clock  and  he  set 
it  so  as  to  go  off  at  four  o'clock — his  usual  hour  for  rising. 
In  the  morning,  the  clock  created  quite  an  alarm  among 
the  occupants  of  the  lower  floor.  Several  sprang  to  their 
feet  in  fright;  when  a  more  knowing  or  a  more  drowsy 
wagoner  calmed  them  with  the  illuminating  explanation, 
'Lie  still,  you  fools !  it  is  only  the  old  priest's  clock  which 
has  busted.' " 

Amid  such  hardships  the  old  gentleman,  for  he  was 
forty-seven  years  old  when  he  was  consecrated,  continued 
his  visitations  till  his  eighty-sixth  year,  traveling  not  only 
from  village  to  village  and  county  to  county,  but  from 
State  to  State.  His  journeys,  besides  every  part  of  Ken- 
tucky, covered  Tennessee,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Illi- 


152  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

nois,  Michigan,  and  Canada  as  far  as  Quebec.  Every- 
where his  eyes  were  open  to  the  needs  of  the  people. 
Where  he  found  half  a  dozen  familes  he  organized  a  con- 
gregation; where  he  found  the  churches  neglected  he  re- 
stored them ;  where  he  found  the  congregations  quarreling, 
he  reconciled  them,  and  not  only  congregations,  but  fam- 
ilies and  individuals. 

A  case  of  this  kind  is  recorded  by  Bishop  Spalding.1 
The  bishop  in  1817  visited  Scott  County  with  his  vicar 
general,  Father  Badin,  their  chief  purpose  being  to  recon- 
cile two  neighbors  who  were  leading  men  in  the  congre- 
gation. For  two  weeks  the  two  clergymen  rummaged 
through  old  papers  and  documents  but  made  little  prog- 
ress. "At  last  one  of  the  quarrelers  remarked  with  some 
bitterness  of  tone  that  he  wished  he  had  burned  all  his 
papers  and  never  brought  up  that  matter  for  adjudica- 
tion. The  bishop  seized  eagerly  on  the  hint  and  at  once 
earnestly  exhorted  them  both  to  burn  their  papers  and  to 
forget  the  past.  They  could  not  resist  his  touching  appeal 
uttered  with  so  much  fatherly  feeling.  .  .  .  The  next 
morning  the  Bishop  said  Mass  in  the  house  of  one  of  these 
men,  the  other  being  present.  .  .  .  Before  the  Com- 
munion, the  Bishop  turned  round  and  addressed  them  one 
of  his  most  fervid  exhortations.  After  Mass  the  papers 
were  solemnly  burned ;  the  two  enemies  shook  hands ;  and 
the  feud  was  terminated — much  to  the  joy  and  edification 
of  all  present,  many  of  whom  could  not  restrain  their 
tears." 

He  heard  countless  confessions,  urged  the  building  of 
schools  and  not  only  encouraged  the  religious  instruction 
of  his  own  flock,  but  when  occasion  offered  explained  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  to  non-Catholics.  He  devised  a 
novel  method  of  instruction  which  proved  both  so  popular 
and  effective,  that  he  had  recourse  to  it  to  the  end  of 

1  Spalding,  "Sketches  of  the  Life,  Times  and  Character  of  Bishop 
Flaget,"  pp.  245-246. 


STTLPICIAN    MISSIONABY   BISHOPS   AND   MISSIONARIES       153 

his  life.  The  first  time  he  tried  it  was  at  Detroit  in  1818, 
on  which  occasion  M.  Richard,  his  old  confrere,  faced  him 
in  the  sanctuary,  putting  questions  to  him  on  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church,  and  the  bishop  answered  by  explaining 
them.  When  he  was  visiting  the  various  parts  of  his  dio- 
cese, he  preached  almost  daily  and  sometimes  he  preached 
as  often  as  three  and  four  times  a  day.  Nay,  at  times  he 
preached  regular  retreats  of  a  week  or  more  in  order  to 
instruct  his  people. 

Besides  these  episcopal  visitations,  during  which  he  also 
administered  the  Sacrament  of  Confirmation,  he  per- 
formed, whenever  it  was  necessary,  the  duties  of  a  plain 
parish  priest.  Thus  in  1820  and  1821  during  the  absence 
of  the  Reverend  M.  Nerinckx  in  Europe,  he  attended  to 
the  six  or  seven  congregations  regularly  under  the  care  of 
that  worthy  missionary.  Similarly,  on  other  occasions  he 
took  charge  of  the  flocks  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Abell,  the 
Reverend  M.  Chabrat  and  others.  He  took  this  pastoral 
work  most  seriously,  not  only  visiting  the  sick  in  the  ca- 
thedral congregation,  but  when,  in  1832-33,  the  cholera 
ravaged  Kentucky  he  was  ready  to  help  the  sick  in  every 
part  of  the  State. 

On  the  Monday  after  Pentecost  the  plague  broke  out  in 
the  family  of  Mr.  Roberts  (a  Protestant  gentleman),  re- 
siding some  eight  miles  from  Bardstown.  Three  of  his 
servants  and  a  daughter  fell  victims  to  it.  All  the  neigh- 
bors fled,  whereupon  two  Sisters  of  Loretto  went  to  the 
aid  of  the  stricken  and  were  followed  by  two  Sisters  of 
Nazareth  and  the  Reverend  Dr.  Reynolds,  later  Bishop 
of  Charleston,  S.  C.  One  of  the  Sisters  died  of  the  dis- 
ease. The  bishop  himself  next  appeared  at  the  desolate 
home,  baptized  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Roberts  and  anointed 
a  dying  servant.  When  the  cholera  reached  Bardstown, 
the  bishop  was  equally  intrepid.  As  long  as  the  plague 
lasted  he  faced  it  boldly  and  escaped  infection,  but  when 


154  THE    SUXPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

it  seemed  to  die  out  it  laid  hold  of  the  sturdy  bishop  and 
brought  him  almost  to  the  grave.  For  three  days  his 
physicians  despaired  of  his  life,  but  his  sturdy  constitu- 
tion, bold  heart  and  God's  help  restored  him  to  health,  to 
the  joy,  not  only  of  his  own  flock,  but  also  of  the  entire  city 
of  Bardstown. 

Bishop  Flaget,  following  the  example  of  the  old  Sul- 
pician  missionaries  of  Montreal  and  of  Canada  generally, 
showed  the  greatest  interest  in  the  American  redskins. 
The  days  were  past  when  the  savages  tortured  the  Chris- 
tian missionaries  to  death,  and  many  of  the  Indians  had 
already  found  their  homes  beyond  the  Mississippi.  But 
wherever  the  bishop  met  with  them,  he  did  not  fail  to 
provide  for  his  redskin  children.  When  in  1792  the  small- 
pox raged  in  Vincennes,  especially  among  the  Indians,  he 
was  an  ever  active  pastor  among  them.  During  his  visit 
to  Canada  it  gave  him  great  pleasure  to  inspect  the  Indian 
settlements  near  the  residence  of  his  friend,  M.  Malaud, 
at  St.  Anne.  He  was  edified  with  their  singing,  admired 
their  superb  "Calvary"  and  was  amused  with  their  sports. 
He  promised  to  send  missionaries  to  the  redskins  of  his 
own  diocese.  In  1818,  when  10,000  Indians  were  gath- 
ered at  St.  Mary's  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  United 
States,  Bishop  Flaget  was  in  their  midst  and  remained 
there  for  a  great  part  of  the  seven  weeks  taken  up  with 
the  negotiations. 

At  St.  Mary's  he  met  the  government  agent,  Colonel 
Johnson,  who,  after  Bishop  Flaget's  death,  published  his 
reminiscences  of  his  relations  with  the  prelate,  which  show 
how  faithfully  the  latter  practised  M.  Olier's  principles. 
He  avoided  all  controversy  with  non-Catholics,  who 
treated  him  with  the  utmost  respect  "His  conduct," 
writes  the  Colonel,  "throughout  his  sojourn  with  us  was 
so  marked  by  the  affability,  courtesy  and  kindness  of  his 
manners  with  the  dignity  of  the  Christian  and  gentleman 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       155 

that  he  won  all  hearts.  Added  to  this,  he  possessed  a  fine 
proportioned  and  commanding  person;  few  persons  ex- 
celled him  here,  when  in  the  prime  of  his  years."  On  this 
occasion,  too,  he  carried  out  the  Sulpician  views  on  the 
accumulation  of  money.  When  the  officials  had  collected 
the  sum  of  $100  (a  large  amount  at  that  time),  for  a 
present  to  him,  he  positively  declined  to  accept  it.  How 
deeply  his  dignified  Christian  bearing  impressed  non- 
Catholics  appears  on  all  occasions  when  he  came  in  con- 
tact with  them. 

As  early  as  1792,  General  George  Rogers  Clark  showed 
him  every  attention  at  Vincennes.  In  1814  Governor 
Clark  of  Missouri  Territory,  the  partner  of  Lewis  in  his 
explorations  of  the  Northwest,  invited  him  to  his  house 
and  prevailed  on  him  to  baptize  his  three  children  and  to 
become  their  god-father.  In  1818,  on  his  way  to  Detroit, 
he  was  invited  to  be  the  guest  of  Mr.  Anderson,  the  Con- 
gressman of  that  district,  who  was  very  kind  to  him.  On 
June  2,  1818,  when  at  Detroit,  he  received  the  visit  of 
Governor  Cass  of  Michigan  and  of  General  Macomb,  who 
commanded  the  United  States  troops  at  Detroit.  They 
showed  him  the  greatest  attention  while  he  remained  in 
that  city,  and  he  dined  with  them  a  week  after  their  visit 
to  him.  In  September  of  the  same  year,  he  was  visited 
by  Governor  Jennings  and  Judge  Park.  On  his  return 
from  Canada  the  same  year  the  Governor-general  of  Can- 
ada met  him  on  board  the  steamer  and  showed  him  every 
courtesy.  It  is  interesting  to  find  the  bishop  on  board 
a  Canadian  steamboat  so  short  a  time  after  Fulton  had 
built  the  first  steam  craft  at  New  York,  indicating  as  it 
does  his  progressive  spirit.  But  it  is  needless  to  multiply 
these  proofs  of  the  great  esteem  in  which  Monseigneur 
Flaget  was  held  by  his  non-Catholic  contemporaries.  This 
is  further  confirmed  by  the  readiness  with  which  successive 
Kentucky  legislatures  granted  charters  and  similar  privi- 


156  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

leges  to  the  convents  at  Loretto  and  Nazareth  at  the 
bishop's  request. 

The  Dominicans  who  had  settled  in  Kentucky  prior  to 
his  appointment  to  the  see  of  Bardstown  were  encouraged 
and  helped  by  Bishop  Flaget  whenever  he  could  do  so.  In 
1812,  with  the  approval  of  the  bishop,  Father  Nerinckx 
founded  the  congregation  of  the  Sisters  of  Loretto,  and 
about  the  same  time  Bishop  David  established  the  Sisters 
of  Charity  of  Nazareth.  Seven  years  later  the  Dominican 
Superior,  Father  Wilson,  established  the  monastery  of  St 
Magdalene,  now  called  St.  Catherine's.  His  zeal  and  fore- 
sight in  securing  candidates  to  the  priesthood  were  proved 
by  the  establishment  of  two  colleges,  both  at  first  run  on  the 
plan  of  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  with  the  help  of  the 
seminary  students.  These  were  St.  Joseph's,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Father  Elder,  and  St  Mary's,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Father  Byrne.  Monseigneur  Flaget  expressed  his 
anxiety  to  have  the  assistance  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  his 
diocese  and  in  1832  the  president  of  St.  Mary's  College,  the 
Very  Reverend  William  Byrne,  turned  over  his  college  to 
its  care.1 

Devotion  and  loyalty  to  the  See  of  Rome  is  another  tra- 
ditional principle  in  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  We 
should  therefore  look  for  it  in  the  life  of  so  thorough  a 
Sulpician  as  Bishop  Flaget.  His  struggle  to  escape  the 
episcopal  dignity  has  already  been  described,  but  at  last 
Rome  spoke  and  M.  Flaget  ceased  his  resistance.  In  1825, 
when  he  thought  of  paying  his  ad  limina  visit  to  Rome,  he 
first  asked  for  the  Pope's  permission  to  leave  his  diocese. 
The  Holy  Father  thought  it  wiser  for  him  to  stay  at  home 
and  he  did  so.  Ten  years  later  he  sailed  for  Italy.  The 
impression  his  loyalty  had  made  on  Gregory  XVI  we  may 
gather  from  the  bishop's  account  of  his  first  interview  with 

1  Only  two  years  before  his  death  In  1848  he  received  into  his  diocese 
about  forty  Trappists  from  the  Abbey  of  Melleray  in  France.  He  estab- 
lished them  at  Gethsemane,  some  eight  miles  from  the  city  of  Bardstown. 


STTLPICIAN    MISSIONARY   BISHOPS    AND    MI88IOWABIE8       157 

the  pontiff,  who  assured  him  that  "he  had  followed  all  my 
footsteps  from  Havre  till  my  arrival  at  Rome,  that  he  was 
satisfied  with  my  conduct,  that  I  was  a  worthy  successor 
of  the  apostles." 

It  was  at  the  request  of  the  pontiff  that  he  undertook  to 
present  the  claims  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Faith  to  the  people  of  France  and  visited  no  less  than 
forty-six  dioceses  with  this  object  His  success  was  both 
immediate  and  lasting.  "Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
joined  the  pious  Association ;  and  what  was  even  far  more 
consoling,  piety  revived  and  fervor  was  aroused  under 
his  preaching  in  the  various  cities  and  towns  of  France." 

When,  after  traveling  through  every  part  of  France  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  its  aid  for  the  American  missions, 
his  friends  urged  the  venerable  prelate  (he  was  seventy- 
seven  years  of  age),  to  remain  with  his  relatives  in  Europe, 
he  asked  the  pontiff's  advice.  Gregory  XVI,  who  had  re- 
ceived many  letters  from  the  United  States  insisting  on 
Bishop  Flaget's  speedy  return,  advised  him  to  go  back  to 
his  diocese.  There  was  not  a  moment's  hesitation.  To 
his  chaplain,  who  spoke  to  him  of  remaining  in  Europe,  he 
declared,  "No,  no,  my  dear  child ;  I  was  already  fully  de- 
cided to  do  the  will  of  the  Pope,  and  if  he  had  answered 
that  I  should  neither  remain  in  France  nor  return  to 
America  but  should  depart  for  China  or  join  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,1  in  case  that  venerable  Confessor  could 
find  there  a  place  for  me,  I  should  have  departed  on  the 
instant." 

He  did  as  he  said  and  returned  to  his  flock,  reaching 
New  York  on  August  21,  1839.  Thence  he  hastened  to 
Bardstown  and  forthwith  proceeded  to  carry  out  the 
Pope's  last  commission.  He  brought  the  pontifical  bless- 
ing to  his  flock.  The  religious  communities  were  the  first 
to  receive  his  visits,  but  he  did  not  forget  the  great  mass 

1  Clemens  August  von  Droste-Vlscberlng,  who  was  then  imprisoned  In  m 
Prussian  fortress  for  maintaining  the  righto  of  the  Church. 


158  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

of  the  faithful  who  were  scattered  over  the  State  of  Ken- 
tucky. During  the  next  two  years  he  traveled  six  hundred 
miles  on  horseback,  bringing  everywhere  the  papal  blessing 
and  being  received  almost  like  a  messenger  from  heaven. 

Then  he  settled  down  at  home,  where  he  continued  to 
exercise,  for  the  advantage,  not  only  of  his  own  diocese 
but  of  the  American  Church  in  general,  the  great  influ- 
ence which  was  the  result  of  his  noble,  disinterested  char- 
acter and  of  the  confidence  which  both  the  American 
bishops  and  the  Roman  authorities  placed  in  his  wisdom. 
For  his  own  diocese  he  secured  colonies  of  the  nuns  of  the 
Good  Shepherd  and  of  the  Trappist  monks  and  placed 
the  Jesuits  in  charge  of  St.  Joseph's  College.  But  what 
especially  engaged  his  attention  was  the  transfer  of  the  see 
from  Bardstown  to  Louisville.  This  scheme  he  had  laid 
before  Gregory  XVI  when  at  Rome.  The  Pope  referred 
the  matter  to  the  Congregation  of  Propaganda  and  some 
time  after  his  return  to  Bardstown,  in  1841,  the  bishop 
received  the  approval  of  this  important  step. 

He  felt  deeply  the  separation  from  Bardstown,  the 
home  of  so  many  successful  and  happy  years,  where  he 
was  universally  respected  and  reverenced,  but  time  had 
shown  that  Louisville,  not  Bardstown,  was  the  most  im- 
portant city  of  the  State.  Though  the  time  of  removal 
had  been  left  to  his  discretion,  he  did  not  hesitate  long, 
being  certain  of  his  welcome  in  Louisville,  where  Catholics 
and  Protestants  were  ready  to  aid  him  in  building  a  new 
cathedral.  Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1841  he  made 
Louisville  his  home.  Eight  years  later,  though  ill,  the 
bishop  witnessed  from  the  balcony  of  his  residence  the 
ceremony  of  laying  the  cornerstone  of  the  cathedral,  whence 
he  gave  his  blessing  to  the  thousands  of  his  flock  and  his 
friends.  He  was  not  privileged  to  see  its  completion. 

The  eighty-seven  years  of  a  strenuous  and  eventful  life 
had  done  their  work.  His  health  began  to  fail,  his  body  to 


SULPICIAN    MIS8IONABY    BISHOP8    AND    MISSIONARIES       159 

grow  feeble,  his  eyes  to  lose  their  power  and  the  results 
of  ancient  accidents  to  revive.  He  could  no  longer  read 
the  office  of  the  Church,  and  said  his  beads  instead.  He 
was  no  longer  able  to  offer  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  and 
bowed  his  head  in  patience  and  submission.  He  could  no 
longer  give  the  benediction  to  the  faithful,  and  unseen  in 
his  private  gallery,  he  knelt  to  receive  God's  blessing.  He 
always  remained  the  simple,  patient,  God-fearing  and 
God-trusting  servant  of  the  Lord,  until  he  slept  in  peace 
amid  the  tears  of  his  friends,  the  respect  of  his  fellow 
citizens  and  the  universal  mourning  of  his  flock.  He 
passed  away  on  February  11,  1850. 

The  work  done  by  Bishop  Flaget,  whether  as  a  student 
in  the  Seminary  or  as  a  professor  at  Nantes;  whether 
in  the  land  of  his  birth,  or  as  an  exile  in  the  land  of  his 
adoption;  whether  as  a  missionary,  or  as  a  bishop,  was 
inspired  by  the  same  thought.  He  wished  to  do  his  duty, 
to  serve  God  and  the  Church.  He  did  this  consistently 
and  strenuously  and  joyfully  and  wisely.  Without  desir- 
ing it,  he  won  the  admiration  of  men.  With  simplicity 
and  without  ambition  he  achieved  great  results.  Without 
looking  for  it,  he  won  the  praise  of  his  superiors  and  his 
wards,  of  the  simple  faithful  and  the  Supreme  Pontiff. 
But  what  most  impresses  us  is  his  beautiful,  inner  Chris- 
tian life.  To  the  diary  which  he  kept  from  his  youth  he 
confided  his  inmost  thoughts.  Our  readers  will  no  doubt 
appreciate  some  of  the  spontaneous  outbursts  of  the  noble 
man  which  we  cull  from  this  book.  The  sight  of  Niagara 
suggested  to  him  the  torrents  of  grace  God  pours  into 
men's  hearts,  which  reject  them  like  the  hard  rock.  "Is 
not  this  the  case  with  my  own  heart?  O  God!  do  not 
permit  this!"  he  prayed. 

"My  God !  how  many  thanks  should  I  not  render  Thee, 
for  having  always  given  me  a  love  for  the  life  of  the 
Seminary,  in  spite  of  the  distractions  in  which  I  am  forced 


160  THE    SULPICLLNS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

to  live!"  His  scrupulous  desire  to  carry  out  the  laws  of 
God  and  the  Church  is  expressed  in  the  following: 
"Vouchsafe,  O  my  God,  to  enlighten  me,  that  I  may  do 
nothing  to  weaken  the  discipline  of  the  Church  ...  in 
order  to  be  found  after  my  death  among  the  faithful  serv- 
ants." When  throngs  of  people  came  to  see  him  during 
his  visit  to  Detroit  in  1818,  he  exclaims:  "O  my  God! 
What  is  there  in  me  to  rivet  the  attention  of  these  people  ?" 

In  his  report  to  the  Holy  Father,  dated  1836,  he  thus 
expresses  his  love  and  solicitude  for  his  clergy:  "Oh! 
may  God  bless  my  clergy !  May  He  bless  their  continual 
sacrifices  and  generous  devotedness,  without  which  there 
would  be  nothing  remaining  of  all  that  exists  in  my  dio- 
cese! But,  alas!  these  young  priests  soon  become  ex- 
hausted; on  them  old  age  and  infirmities  come  prema- 
turely— the  evident  result  of  their  long  journeys  and 
painful  missions." 

His  detachment  from  life  in  the  world  was  ever  in 
evidence  but  especially  toward  the  end.  To  his  friends, 
who  often  wished  him  better  health  and  many  more  years 
of  life,  he  constantly  replied :  "O  no,  pray  not  for  a  longer 
life,  but  pray  for  a  holy  and  happy  death." 

We  shall  close  the  story  of  Bishop  Flaget's  life  by  lay- 
ing before  our  readers  a  picture  of  his  diocese  as  he  left 
it  to  his  successor.  When  he  went  to  Bardstown  in  1810 
he  found  there  but  a  single  institution,  the  Dominican 
Monastery  of  St.  Rose.  At  his  death,  the  diocese  had  a 
seminary  with  nineteen  students;  a  preparatory  seminary 
with  fifteen  students,  two  priests  and  five  teachers;  a 
high  school  with  thirty  students;  four  colleges,  one  in 
the  hands  of  the  Jesuits;  three  religious  Sisterhoods  in 
charge  of  a  large  female  orphan  asylum,  an  infirmary 
and  eleven  flourishing  academies  for  girls.  Bishop  Spald- 
ing  does  not  mention  the  number  of  churches,  schools 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      161 

and  parishes,  but  we  know  that  under  the  bishop's  care 
they  too  had  increased  and  multiplied. 


II — EIGHT  EEVEEEND  J.  B.  DAVID,  S.S. 

Bishop  Flaget's  dearest  friend  and  most  faithful  aid 
was  his  old  Sulpician  confrere,  Bishop  John  Baptist 
David.  The  story  of  their  friendship  and  collaboration 
is  truly  edifying  and  touching.  Indeed,  the  life  of  Bishop 
David  sheds  new  light  on  the  life  of  Bishop  Flaget.  Still, 
the  two  men  were  in  many  respects  quite  unlike  each 
other.  Both  were  genuine  Sulpicians,  but  while  Bishop 
Flaget  represents  the  best  type  of  missionary  Sulpician, 
Bishop  David,  though  the  coadjutor  of  his  friend,  was  es- 
sentially the  professor  and  such  he  remained  till  the  end 
of  his  days. 

John  Baptist  David  was  a  Breton,  sturdy,  heavily  built 
and  endowed  with  a  vigorous  intellect  and  a  sympathetic 
heart.  He  was  born  in  1761,  near  Nantes,  and  therefore 
was  Bishop  Flaget's  senior  by  two  years.  After  completing 
his  classical  studies  he  entered  the  Sulpician  Seminary 
at  Issy,  where  he  was  ordained  in  1785.  He  then  joined 
the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  taught  philosophy  and 
theology  in  various  seminaries  until  these  were  broken 
up  by  the  revolutionary  disturbances  in  France  (1791). 
He  was  one  of  the  companions  of  M.  Flaget  in  1792  and 
thenceforth  they  were  intimate  friends.  On  his  arrival 
at  Baltimore,  Bishop  Carroll  sent  him  to  the  lower  part  of 
Maryland,  where  he  remained  until  1803.  He  proved  to 
be  a  zealous  and  active  missionary  priest  and  is  said  to 
have  been  the  first  to  introduce  in  the  United  States  mis- 
sions for  lay  congregations.1  However,  he  was  not  destined 
for  missionary  life  and  in  1803  we  find  him  as  professor 

1  M.  David  resided  at  Lower  Zacchia.  now  Bryantown.  from  which  place 
he  served  Upper  Zacchia.  now  St.  Peter's.  Waldorf  and  Matta woman. 
We  are  Indebted  for  this  Information  to  Rev.  E.  J.  Devltt,  S.  J. 


162  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

at  Georgetown,  whence  he  was  soon  transferred  to  St. 
Mary's,  Baltimore.  When  Bishop  Flaget  went  to  Bards- 
town  in  1810,  M.  David,  who  had  volunteered  to  accom- 
pany him,  went,  by  M.  Emery's  directions,  to  Kentucky, 
and  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  new  bishop's  seminary. 
The  seminary  at  first  had  only  three  students,  who  in  five 
years  increased  to  fifteen,  but  the  sturdy  Breton  president, 
who  composed  also  the  entire  faculty,  conducted  their 
studies  with  as  much  regularity  and  system  as  if  there 
had  been  a  hundred.  His  seminary  was  a  true  Sulpician 
seminary.  The  next  year  the  new  seminary  was  trans- 
ferred from  St.  Stephen's  to  the  farm  of  St.  Thomas  on 
the  plantation  given  to  Monseigneur  Flaget  by  Mr. 
Thomas  Howard,  a  devout  and  zealous  Kentucky  Catholic. 
Here  M.  David  and  the  seminarians,  whom  their  superior 
had  imbued  with  the  same  devotion  to  their  work  which 
animated  himself,  while  continuing  their  studies,  built  a 
new  seminary,  thirty  feet  square.  Professors  and  students 
spent  their  recreation  time  in  making  bricks  and  erecting 
the  building,  which  sufficed  for  twenty-five  persons  and 
could  be  heated  so  as  to  make  it  habitable  in  winter.  The 
students  had  likewise  a  considerable  share  in  the  erection 
of  the  convent  of  the  Sisters  of  Nazareth.  They  did  not, 
however,  on  account  of  these  labors  neglect  the  prescribed 
lectures  or  seminary  exercises. 

After  the  death  of  Bishop  Egan  of  Philadelphia,  in 
1814,  M.  David  was  appointed  to  that  see.  But  miters 
had  no  more  attraction  for  M.  David  than  for  the  other 
Sulpicians  and  could  not  tempt  him  away  from  his  beloved 
seminary.  Subsequently  he  refused  the  diocese  of  Xew 
Orleans.  In  1817,  however,  he  was  appointed  coadjutor 
to  Bishop  Flaget,  but  he  remained  loyal  to  his  much  be- 
loved seminary.  He  also  had  charge  of  some  congregations 
in  its  neighborhood. 

An  enterprise  in  which  he  took  a  special  interest  was  the 


]?T.  KEY.  JOHN*  BAPTIST  DAVID. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      163 

Sisterhood  which  is  now  so  well  known  in  Kentucky  and 
the  South  as  the  Sisters  of  Nazareth.  Like  all  institutes 
destined  to  flourish  and  to  last,  its  beginnings  were  very 
humble.  About  a  year  after  the  removal  of  M.  David's 
seminary  to  the  farm  of  St.  Thomas,  i.e.,  in  1812,  he 
undertook  the  direction  of  two  pious  women  who  wished 
to  consecrate  themselves  especially  to  the  service  of  God. 
Other  ladies  soon  joined  them.  In  June,  1813,  when 
their  community  had  increased  to  six,  they  started  their 
organization  in  a  brick  building  near  the  seminary  on  the 
old  Howard  farm. 

M.  David  undertook  to  draw  up  their  rules,  which  were 
based  on  those  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  of  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul.  These  he  modified  so  as  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
changed  circumstances,  and  the  nuns  dedicated  themselves 
to  the  care  of  the  sick  and  the  teaching  of  the  young.  M. 
David's  work  turned  out  to  be  very  practical  and  satisfac- 
tory. In  1822  the  mother-house  was  transferred  to  Naza- 
reth, whence  the  congregation  spread  not  only  throughout 
Kentucky  but  over  many  States  of  the  South  and  South- 
west. M.  David  continued  to  be  the  director  of  these 
good  ladies  after  he  became  Coadjutor  Bishop  of  Bards- 
town,  until  his  failing  health  compelled  him  to  relinquish 
to  Bishop  Keynolds  of  Charleston  this  work  which  had 
been  his  charge  for  upwards  of  twenty  years  and  which 
had  grown  so  dear  to  him. 

But  M.  David's  principal  care  always  remained  St. 
Thomas'  Seminary.  Until  the  building  of  the  Bardstown 
cathedral  in  1819  the  seminary  was  his  regular  home,  and 
here  Bishop  Flaget  also  had  his  residence  and  helped 
along  the  work  of  the  seminary.  Meantime  the  extent  of 
the  bishop's  diocese,  his  manifold  duties  and  his  frequent 
absences  from  home,  impressed  on  him  his  need  of  an  as- 
sistant. Rome  received  his  request  for  a  coadjutor  favor- 
ably and  also  approved  M.  David,  the  candidate  he  had 


164  THE    SULPICIASTS    IN    THE    HUTTED    STATES 

suggested.  The  Bulls  appointing  him  titular  Bishop  of 
Mauricastro  were  dated  July  4,  1817.  M.  David  used 
every  means  to  escape  the  promotion,  pleading  his  inex- 
perience, his  age,  for  he  was  the  senior  by  two  years  of 
Bishop  Flaget,  and  the  fact  that  his  having  advocated  the 
appointment  of  a  coadjutor  might  seem  to  have  paved  the 
way  to  his  own  preferment  But  the  Roman  authorities 
set  aside  these  reasons  and  M.  David  yielded,  but  even 
then  the  old  Sulpician  was  true  to  his  calling,  for  he  con- 
tinued to  be  the  president  of  the  seminary,  directing  the 
studies  and  delivering  his  lectures  just  as  before.  ISFor 
did  his  labors  cease  there,  for  he  continued  to  supervise 
the  work  of  the  Sisters  of  Nazareth,  was  at  the  same  time 
the  rector  and  the  organist  of  the  Bardstown  cathedral, 
and  served  four  adjoining  missions,  as  well  as  that  of  St. 
Thomas,  of  which  he  had  long  been  pastor.  His  heart 
always  remained  with  the  seminary  work,  which  bore 
fruit  a  hundred-fold.  Archbishop  Spalding,  one  of  his 
old  seminary  students,  declares  that  the  older  clergy  of 
Kentucky  who  were  trained  by  him  and  who  knew  him 
well,  long  held  his  name  in  benediction. 

Laden  with  work  but  happy  amid  all  his  labors,  Bishop 
David  gave  no  thought  to  anything  but  his  duties,  when 
in  1832  he  was  suddenly  upset  by  the  arrival  of  a  Bull 
appointing  him  Bishop  of  Bardstown  to  succeed  Bishop 
Flaget  who  had  resigned  two  years  before,  and  the  whole 
diocese  shared  his  perturbation.  Bishop  Flaget  was  visit- 
ing Bishop  Rosati  at  St.  Louis,  when  he  received  Bishop 
David's  letter  announcing  the  news  from  Rome.  He 
strongly  protested  against  the  change,  and  returned  to 
Bardstown,  accompanied  by  the  Bishop  of  St.  Louis.  But 
the  opposition  of  both  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Ken- 
tucky diocese  was  so  pronounced  that  the  three  bishops 
thought  it  best  to  bow  before  it.  Bishop  David  offered 
Rome  his  resignation  and  Bishop  Flaget  placed  himself 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONAEY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      165 

at  the  disposition  of  the  Holy  Sea  As  a  consequence, 
after  being  Bishop  of  Bardstown  for  about  a  year,  Mon- 
seigneur  David's  resignation  was  accepted  and  Bishop 
Flaget  was  restored.  The  faithful  old  coadjutor  retired 
to  his  seminary  where  he  remained  until  the  condition  of 
his  health  and  the  solicitude  of  his  daughters  of  Nazareth 
induced  him  to  seek  recovery  in  the  midst  of  the  Sister- 
hood that  he  had  founded.  They  lavished  on  him  every 
attention,  but  the  noble  and  intrepid  soldier  of  Christ 
had  finished  his  task.  He  died  at  Nazareth  on  July  12, 
1841. 

Bishop  David  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  He  labored 
not  only  on  the  missions  and  among  the  Sisters  of  Charity, 
not  only  as  a  seminary  professor  and  executive,  but  also 
as  a  writer.  His  writings,  a  list  of  which  follows,  were 
among  the  earliest  fruits  of  the  Catholic  press  in  the  West, 
and  include  several  translations  from  the  French :  "Vin- 
dication of  the  Catholic  Doctrine  Concerning  the  Use  and 
Veneration  of  Images,"  "Address  to  His  Brethren  of 
Other  Professions,"  "On  the  Rule  of  Faith,  True  Piety ; 
or,  the  Day  Well  Spent,"  and  a  Catholic  hymn  book. 

Bishop  David,  like  men  of  his  large  and  powerful  build, 
was  kind  and  good  natured,  though  also  of  quick  and  emo- 
tional temperament  But  his  ire  quickly  passed  away. 
He  was  strict  with  those  under  his  charge  but  no  less  strict 
with  himself.  When  in  1823  the  first  clerical  retreat  of 
the  Bardstown  diocese  took  place,  Bishop  David,  fancying 
that  he  had  been  slighted  in  some  matter,  lost  his  temper 
and  gave  offense  by  his  language.  But  before  long  he 
realized  his  mistake  and  nothing  would  satisfy  the  humble 
and  contrite  bishop  but  a  public  apology  before  the  assem- 
bled priests.  The  incident  produced  a  profound  impres- 
sion among  the  clergy  and  increased  the  love  and  the  re- 
spect of  all.  The  simple  characters  of  both  Bishop  David 
and  Bishop  Flaget  were  illustrated  by  another  incident 


166  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

which  occurred  when  both  were  advanced  in  years.  Not 
long  before  Bishop  David's  death,  Bishop  Flaget  received 
from  Europe  a  box  containing  pictures,  beads  and  medals 
which  was  opened  in  the  presence  of  Bishop  David.  The 
latter  asked  Bishop  Flaget  for  some  of  these  trinkets  with  a 
view  to  distributing  them  among  his  friends.  With  a  smile 
on  his  lips  Bishop  Flaget  answered :  "You  always  ask  me 
for  something  and  never  give  me  anything."  Bishop 
David's  reply  was  irresistible :  "I  have  given  you  all  that 
I  have,  I  have  given  you  myself,"  and  he  got  what  he 
asked  for. 

Ill — REVEREND  GABRIEL  RICHARD,  S.S.1 

Among  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  sent  to  the  United 
States  in  1792  was  the  Reverend  Gabriel  Richard.  He 
was  a  young  man  only  twenty-five  years  old  and  had  been 
born  at  Saintes  in  the  department  of  Charente-Inferieure. 
His  family  was  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
for  it  had  given  to  France  Bossuet,  the  eloquent  Bishop 
of  Meaux.  M.  Richard  made  his  classical  studies  at  his 
birthplace  and  then  studied  philosophy  and  theology  un- 
der the  Sulpicians  at  Angers.  He  joined  the  Company  of 
St.  Sulpice  before  his  ordination,  which  took  place  at 
Issy  in  1791.  The  Seminary  at  Issy  was  still  open  in  the 
fall  of  1791,  and  young  Richard  taught  mathematics  there. 
When  the  house  was  closed  by  the  violence  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  faculty  was  dispersed,  M.  Richard  was 
sent  to  Baltimore  and  thus  ended  his  career  as  a  teacher. 

There  being  no  work  for  him  in  the  Baltimore  seminary, 
Bishop  Carroll  sent  him  to  the  West  to  labor  among  the 
French  Creoles  and  the  Indians.  On  the  way  to  his  mis- 
sion, late  in  1792,  we  find  him  at  St.  Louis  with  MM. 
Flaget  and  Levadoux.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  Kaskaskia 

1  For  a  fuller  biography  of  the  Rev.  G.  Richard,  see  that  by  the  Rev. 
John  J.  O'Brien  in  "Historical  Records  and  Studies,"  voL  v,  p.  77  sqq. 


PASTOR     OF     ST.    ANNE'S     CHURCH.      DETROIT. 
;  7  9  9  —  1 S  3  2 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONABY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSION  ABIES      167 

and  Prairie  du  Rocher,  to  which  missions  Cahokia  was 
added  in  1796.  At  Kaskaskia  he  found  a  congregation 
of  some  eight  hundred  French  Creoles,  who  were  far  from 
being  models  of  virtue.  The  congregations  at  Prairie  du 
Rocher  and  Cahokia,  however,  were  much  better.  In 
Illinois  and  Indiana  he  worked  with  zeal  and  devotion 
until  1798,  when,  in  company  with  M.  Dilhet,  he  was 
called  to  Detroit  to  assist  the  Reverend  M.  Levadoux  who, 
in  1801,  was  recalled  to  Baltimore  and  subsequently  re- 
turned to  France. 

Detroit  was  a  French  settlement  and  the  center  of  the 
local  fur  trade  with  the  Indians.  M.  Richard's  missionary 
work  gradually  extended  also  to  Michilimackinac,  Sault 
Sainte  Marie  and  Arbre  Croche,  where  there  were  Indian 
stations.     M.  Richard  was  therefore  following  closely  in 
the  footsteps  of  the  gentlemen  sent  by  M.  Olier  to  Mon- 
treal.   In  1802  when  M.  Levadoux  left  Detroit,  M.  Rich- 
ard became  pastor  of  the  old  church  of  St.  Anne,  founded 
in  1755,  and  vicar-general  of  the  Bishop  of  Baltimore. 
That  the  new  pastor  vigorously  seized  the  reins  is  appar- 
ent from  the  fact  that  only  a  year  after  his  installation 
no  less  than  521  members  of  his  flock  were  confirmed  by 
Bishop  Denaut  of  Quebec.    Then  he  took  in  hand  the  im- 
provement of  education  at  Detroit,  where  hitherto  hardly 
anything  had  been  done  in  its  behalf.    In  1804  he  opened 
an  academy  for  girls  with  five  instructresses.    In  the  same 
year,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  Sulpician  Com- 
pany and  the  directions  of  M.  Emery,  he  founded  a  high 
school  for  boys,  or  rather  a  preparatory  seminary  for 
young  men.    Here  were  taught  Latin,  geography,  ecclesi- 
astical history,  Church  music  and  the  practice  of  mental 
prayer.     Probably  he  and  M.  Dilhet  were  the  principal, 
perhaps  the  only,  instructors.     In  1805  Detroit  was  vis- 
ited by  a  great  conflagration  which  swept  away  the  greater 
part  of  the  city  and  destroyed  M.  Richard's  church  and 


168  THE    STTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

schools.  Among  the  citizens  of  Detroit  who  assisted  the 
city  to  rise  from  its  ashes  there  was  no  more  strenuous 
worker  than  the  Catholic  pastor.  He  gathered  provisions 
for  the  unfortunate  victims  and  secured  the  respect  of 
all  his  fellow  citizens,  for  in  the  distribution  of  his  charity 
he  made  no  distinction  of  class,  nationality  or  creed,  nor 
did  he  neglect  the  interests  of  education.  Three  years 
after  the  fire  Detroit  could  boast  of  six  elementary  schools 
and  two  academies  for  girls.  M.  Kichard  was  also  eager  to 
restore  his  high  school,  but  we  do  not  know  how  far  he  pro- 
gressed in  his  plans.  We  do  know,  however,  that  he  ac- 
tively promoted  the  establishment  of  what  has  since  become 
the  University  of  Michigan. 

This  was  founded  by  act  of  the  Legislature  in  the  year 
1817  under  the  title  of  "Catholepistemiad,"  a  name  given 
to  it  by  Judge  Woodward.  In  spite  of  this  handicap,  and 
his  thirteen  didaxiims  or  professorships,  it  survives  to 
this  day  as  the  University  of  Michigan.  The  president, 
Keverend  John  Monteith,  a  Protestant  clergyman,  held 
seven  of  these  didaxiims  and  Father  Eichard,  the  vice- 
president,  the  remaining  six.  His  yearly  salary  was 
$18.50.  Whether  he  actually  performed  any  of  the  duties 
of  his  didaxiims  is  not  certain,  but  probable.  At  all 
events,  the  Catholepistemiad  was  short  lived.  In  1821 
the  charter  of  1817  was  repealed  and  replaced  by  a  new 
charter  establishing  the  University  of  Michigan,  of  which 
M.  Richard  was  one  of  the  trustees.  As  he  had  a  reputa- 
tion as  an  eloquent  speaker  he  may  well  have  lectured 
at  times  in  the  university.  At  all  events,  from  1807  he 
delivered  addresses  to  his  Protestant  fellow-citizens  in  the 
council  house.  These  were  religious  lectures,  inculcating 
the  fundamental  principles  of  morality  and  Christianity, 
which  tended  to  dissipate  non-Catholic  prejudice,  and,  no 
doubt,  brought  some  of  his  hearers  to  the  Catholic  Church. 

About  1808  or  1810  M.  Richard  paid  a  visit  to  Balti- 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      169 

more.1  Ever  attentive  to  the  needs  of  his  Michigan  flock 
and  convinced  that  it  sadly  needed  good  Catholic  reading, 
he  purchased  a  printing  press,  which  was  one  of  the  first 
used  in  that  State.  He  now  became  an  editor  and  founded 
the  "Michigan  Essay,"  which,  however,  did  not  take  root, 
its  first  number  being  also  the  last.  Nevertheless,  the 
printing  press  was  not  a  failure,  for  it  enabled  M.  Rich- 
ard to  print  a  number  of  books,  in  both  French  and  Eng- 
lish, dealing  with  religion  and  education,  of  which  the 
reader  will  find  a  list  in  Father  O'Brien's  article.2 

During  the  War  of  1812  against  England,  M.  Richard 
gave  free  expression  to  his  patriotic  attachment  to  his 
adopted  country  and  thereby  roused  the  wrath  of  the 
Canadian  authorities,  who  had  him  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned at  Sandwich.  There  he  ministered  to  the  reli- 
gious wants  of  England's  Indian  allies  and  saved  some 
Americans  from  torture  and  death. 

A  unique  distinction  fell  to  bis  lot  in  1823.  He  was 
chosen  delegate  to  Congress  for  the  Territory  of  Michigan 
and  was  the  only  Catholic  priest  who  ever  sat  in  Congress. 
He  performed  his  duties  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  his 
constituents.  The  greater  part  of  the  salary  that  came  to 
him  as  a  member  of  Congress  he  devoted  to  the  rebuilding 
of  St.  Anne's  Church.  He  established  Indian  schools  at 
Green  Bay,  Arbre  Croche  and  St.  Joseph's.  He  took  an 
interest  in  the  education  of  the  deaf-mutes  and  in  popu- 
lar education  generally,  for  we  find  him  delivering  lectures 
before  the  students  of  the  Normal  School  of  Detroit.  In 
fact,  he  worked  for  every  cause  which  advanced  the  civil 
and  religious  interests  of  the  people  of  Michigan.  In 
1832  this  State,  like  other  parts  of  the  West,  was  visited 
by  the  cholera.  Intrepidly,  like  Bishop  Flaget,  he  stood 
at  the  bedside  of  the  stricken  and  fell  a  victim  to  the  per- 

*M.    Richard   was   in    Baltimore   Dec.    30,    1808.      He   left   for   Detroit 
March  1,  1809  (Tessler's  "Epoques"). 
*  "Historical  Records  and  Studies,"  vol.  v,  p.  77  sqq. 


170  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

formance  of  his  duty.  Judge  Cooley,  a  non-Catholic, 
spoke  of  him  in  words  of  marked  eulogy.  "Father  Rich- 
ard," he  said,  "a  faithful  and  devoted  pastor  under  many 
discouragements,  did  what  he  found  it  in  his  power  to  do 
to  restore  or  convert  the  people  to  Christianity  and  to 
moral  and  decent  lives.  He  would  have  been  a  man  of 
mark  in  almost  any  community  and  at  any  time." 

IV— RIGHT  REVEBEND  WILLIAM  VALENTINE 
DUBOTJRG,  S.S. 

In  our  fourth  chapter  we  have  traced  the  career  of  M. 
Dubourg  while  he  was  president  of  St.  Mary's  College 
Baltimore,  until  Bishop  Carroll  appointed  him  admin- 
istrator of  the  diocese  of  New  Orleans.  He  thus  became 
one  of  the  Sulpician  missionaries.  His  success  as  presi- 
dent of  Georgetown  and  president  of  St.  Mary's  College 
was  ample  proof  that  Bishop  Carroll  had  made  no  mis- 
take. His  enterprise,  his  polished,  attractive  manners  and 
his  power  to  make  friends  fitted  him  to  overcome  the 
obstacles  that  he  had  to  meet  in  his  new  position.  His 
gentleness  combined  with  prudence  and  determination 
promised  solid  achievements. 

The  ecclesiastical  administration  of  the  part  of  the 
United  States  which  was  then  included  under  the  name  of 
Louisiana  was  by  no  means  an  easy  undertaking.  It  had 
become  a  part  of  the  United  States  only  eight  or  nine  years 
before  (1803),  when  Napoleon,  who  had  held  the  sov- 
ereignty for  a  few  months  only,  had  sold  it  to  our  govern- 
ment. For  thirty-eight  years  prior  to  1800  Louisiana 
had  belonged  to  Spain,  having  been  transferred  to  that 
power  after  the  Seven  Years'  War,  when  France  lost 
Canada  and  the  rest  of  her  colonies  in  the  New  World. 
Under  the  French  power,  Louisiana  was  in  its  infancy. 
Its  religious  interests  had  been  in  charge  principally  of 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      171 

the  old  Indian  missionaries,  mostly  Jesuits,  and  the 
bishops  of  Quebec.  Under  the  Spaniards  the  religious 
authorities  also  were  changed  and  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence had  not  helped  to  improve  the  moral  and  religious 
status  of  the  inhabitants,  whether  Creoles  or  redskins. 

At  New  Orleans,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, more  active  communication  with  France  had  brought 
into  the  country  the  French  literature  and  principles 
which  had  done  so  much  to  prepare  the  Revolution.  Con- 
sequently religious  fervor  was  not  marked  and  religious 
practices  were  irregular.  Owing  in  part  to  the  repeated 
changes  of  administration,  the  clergy  also  had  degenerated 
and  ecclesiastical  discipline  had  become  relaxed.  In  1763 
the  Bishop  of  Santiago,  Cuba,  was  charged  with  the  ad- 
ministration of  Louisiana.  But  before  long  it  was  found 
that  a  bishop  residing  in  Cuba  had  but  little  authority 
over  a  clergy  residing  in  Louisiana,  especially  as  both 
clergy  and  laity,  mostly  French,  had  little  sympathy  with 
their  Spanish  superior.  At  the  request  of  the  Bishop  of 
Santiago,  therefore,  Rome,  in  1772,  appointed  a  resident 
coadjutor  for  New  Orleans.  His  jurisdiction  extended 
over  the  present  States  of  Louisiana,  Alabama,  Florida 
and  the  banks  of  the  lower  Mississippi  and  Missouri.  In 
the  entire  country  there  were  seventeen  parishes  and 
twenty-one  priests.  Notwithstanding  the  small  number 
of  his  subjects,  the  new  coadjutor's  administration  proved 
no  more  successful  than  the  bishop's  and,  what  was  worse, 
he  did  not  agree  with  the  bishop's  views.  In  1793  the 
trouble  became  so  acute  that  Bishop  Escheveria  dispensed 
with  the  services  of  the  coadjutor,  who  thereupon  retired 
to  Catalonia. 

Pius  VI  thought  that  to  remedy  the  evil  it  was  best 
to  make  Louisiana  an  independent  see,  and  accordingly 
Don  Penalver  y  Cardenas  was  named  Bishop  of  New 
Orleans.  He  was  a  good  man  and  a  wise  governor.  The 


172  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

evils  he  had  to  contend  with  were  serious  and  almost  in- 
curable. Religious  life  was  fast  dying  out  Of  11,000 
faithful  in  the  cathedral  parish  only  three  or  four  hun- 
dred made  their  Easter  duty.  Less  than  half  attended 
Mass  on  Sundays.  The  religious  character  of  marriage 
was  ignored  and  concuhinage  was  quite  common.  Add  to 
this  the  general  spread  of  the  irreligious  French  literature 
of  the  eighteenth  century  and  we  can  conceive  without  diffi- 
culty the  troubles  of  the  new  bishop.  Things  grew  worse 
and  worse  after  1801,  in  which  year  Bishop  Penalver  y 
Cardenas  was  transferred  to  Guatemala.  His  successor 
never  reached  his  diocese,  but  died  at  Rome  in  1802.  The 
administration  was  then  in  the  hands  of  a  vicar  general 
whose  regularity  was  doubtful,  and  in  1804  this  doubtful 
vicar  general  died. 

New  Orleans  was  in  this  state  of  religious  anarchy 
when  in  1805  the  Holy  See  entrusted  the  administration 
of  Louisiana  to  Bishop  Carroll.  He  felt  that  a  resident 
bishop  was  needed,  and  sent  to  Rome  the  names  of  Father 
David  and  Father  Nerinckx  as  men  suitable  for  the  new 
bishopric.  But  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  was  ambi- 
tious for  the  honors  of  a  miter.  Some  years  of  negotia- 
tion followed,  which  probably  did  not  help  to  improve 
the  situation  in  New  Orleans.  At  last  in  1812,  at  Bishop 
Carroll's  suggestion,  Rome  appointed  M.  Dubourg  admin- 
istrator, and  he  accepted  the  office  reluctantly.  Indeed  his 
new  field  of  labor  was  a  far  from  inviting  post.  What 
has  been  said  sufficiently  suggests  the  disorderly,  nay,  al- 
most desperate  condition  of  spiritual  affairs  at  New  Or- 
leans. But  this  was  not  all.  At  the  gates  of  the  city  stood 
an  English  army  ready  to  attack  it.  Surely,  M.  Dubourg 
was  a  man  of  great  pluck  and  determination  to  accept  the 
administratorship  in  spite  of  these  obstacles. 

M.  Dubourg's  first  steps  at  New  Orleans  were  no  less 
energetic  than  had  been  his  administration  of  St.  Mary's 


MOST  REV.  WILLIAM  DUBOURG, 
Founder  and  First  President  of  St.  Mary's  College. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       173 

College.  Seeing  the  critical  state  of  things,  he  appealed 
to  his  flock  to  support  the  American  general,  Andrew  Jack- 
son, and  insisted  upon  the  duty  and  merit  of  patriotism. 
His  words  were  not  thrown  away.  General  Jackson,  hav- 
ing won  the  glorious  battle  of  New  Orleans  on  January 
8,  1815,  M.  Dubourg  invited  him  to  assist  at  the  Te  Deum 
in  honor  of  his  victory.  Jackson,  who  was  no  less  im- 
pressed by  M.  Dubourg's  eloquence  than  by  his  energy 
and  patriotism,  enthusiastically  recognized  the  adminis- 
trator's services  to  the  American  cause.  M.  Dubourg's 
patriotic  action  impressed  not  only  General  Jackson  but 
all  the  people  of  New  Orleans. 

However,  so  disordered  had  ecclesiastical  affairs  become 
in  Louisiana  that  even  before  the  administrator's  arrival 
some  of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  city  openly  refused 
to  recognize  his  authority.  The  leaders  of  the  opposition 
were  a  Spanish  priest  named  Anthony  Sedella  and  two 
other  seditious  clergymen.  When  the  administrator  re- 
solved to  put  an  end  to  these  disorders  by  direct  appeal 
to  Home  and  appointed  Father  Sibourd  his  vicar  general 
during  his  absence,  Sedella  denied  M.  Dubourg's  authority 
to  name  a  vicar  general.  He  succeeded  in  spreading  the 
spirit  of  revolt  throughout  the  city  and  diocese,  and 
finally  appealed  to  Congress  to  subvert  the  administra- 
tor's authority  and  vest  the  control  of  various  parishes  in 
boards  elected  by  the  congregation.  M.  Dubourg,  natur- 
ally a  man  of  moderation  and  ready  to  use  every  means 
to  re-establish  peace,  plainly  foresaw  the  failure  of  all 
his  endeavors.  It  was  high  time  for  him  to  go  to  Rome. 

At  Rome  he  met  with  a  warm  and  friendly  reception. 
Not  only  were  his  views  and  plans  received  with  favor, 
but  he  was  appointed  Bishop  of  New  Orleans  in  accord- 
ance with  Bishop  Carroll's  suggestion,  immediately  con- 
secrated (1815),  and  without  delay  began  his  labors  for 
the  development  of  his  diocese.  While  it  contained  more 


174  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

priests  perhaps  than  other  parts  of  the  United  States 
there  was  also  a  larger  flock  to  be  cared  for.  Besides, 
many  of  the  clergy  were  broken  down  by  age  and  some 
of  them  were  decidedly  seditious.  His  first  effort,  there- 
fore, was  to  secure  new  missionaries,  who  by  their  zeal, 
energy  and  loyalty  would  change  the  face  of  affairs.  Suc- 
cess was  immediate.  At  Rome,  he  obtained  the  services 
of  the  distinguished  Lazarist  Fathers,  de  Andreis,  Eosati 
and  Aquaroni,  as  well  as  others  of  the  same  Congregation. 
In  Belgium,  too,  he  found  a  number  of  priests  and  semi- 
narians ready  to  follow  him  to  the  new  world.  His  experi- 
ence at  New  Orleans  had  convinced  him  that  the  aid  of 
some  French  Sisterhoods  would  greatly  facilitate  his  mis- 
sionary work.  He  therefore  brought  with  him  from 
Europe  nine  Ursuline  Sisters  and  a  few  Religious  of  the 
Sacred  Heart,  a  new  congregation  recently  founded  by 
Madame  Barat.  The  superior  of  this  latter  community 
was  Madame  Duchesne.  When  he  reached  Annapolis  on 
September  4th,  he  was  accompanied  by  five  priests  and 
twenty-six  seminarians.1 

The  company,  headed  by  the  bishop,  started  westward 
at  once,  and  finally  reached  Bardstown,  where  he  was 
received  with  open  arms  by  his  Sulpician  brethren,  Bish- 
ops Flaget  and  David.  The  new  bishop  carefully  consid- 
ered his  plan  of  campaign.  To  go  to  New  Orleans  di- 
rectly was  to  invite  riot  and  rebellion.  Accordingly,  he 
resolved  to  enter  his  diocese  at  its  northwestern  end,  in 
other  words,  to  go  to  St.  Louis  before  returning  to  New 
Orleans.  In  fact,  he  had  prepared  the  way  for  this  policy 
by  asking  Bishop  Flaget,  who  was  well  known  and  popu- 
lar at  St.  Louis,  to  pay  a  visit  to  that  -city  in  1817.  Mon- 
seigneur  Flaget  had  complied  with  Bishop  Dubourg's  re- 

1  From  September  10th  to  November  4th  Bishop  Dubourg  resided  at 
the  seminary,  where,  on  his  arrival,  the  college  students  complimented 
their  former  president.  During  his  stay  he  officiated  pontlflcally  at  the 
cathedral,  St.  Patrick's  church  and  the  seminary  chapel.  Five  of  his 
students  received  orders  at  his  hands,  M.  Bertrand  being  raised  to  the 
priesthood. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      175 

quest,  although  in  St.  Louis,  too,  there  were  active  ele- 
ments of  opposition.  But  these  disappeared  during  Bishop 
Flaget's  visit  When  Bishop  Dubourg  learned  of  this 
favorable  turn  of  affairs,  he  decided  to  go  to  St  Louis 
forthwith,  but  thought  it  wise  to  ask  Bishop  Flaget  to 
accompany  him.  In  the  latter  part  of  1817  the  two 
bishops  set  out  on  their  journey.1  At  St.  Louis  the  party 
was  received  with  great  enthusiasm  and  the  bishop  re- 
solved to  make  the  city  his  home  for  the  present  and  to 
proceed  to  New  Orleans  gradually,  thus  avoiding  any 
conflict  with  the  seditious  elements  in  his  episcopal  city. 
This  plan  was  not  only  prudent  but  also  in  harmony  with 
the  gentle,  peaceful  character  of  the  bishop  and  eventually 
proved  eminently  successful. 

The  bishop's  first  care  was  the  establishment  of  a  dio- 
cesan seminary.  The  inhabitants  of  a  place  called  The 
Barrens,  not  far  from  St.  Louis,  generously  offered  the 
needed  ground  and  helped  in  the  erection  of  the  buildings. 
The  institution  was  entrusted  to  the  Lazarist  Fathers  un- 
der the  presidency  of  Father  de  Lacroix  (1818),  and 
though  at  first  there  were  but  few  students,  their  number 
grew  from  year  to  year  and  the  seminary  was  a  success 
from  the  beginning. 

The  establishment  of  the  Religious  of  the  Sacred  Heart 
in  the  diocese  progressed  no  less  successfully.  Three  nuns 
arrived  at  New  Orleans,  May  30,  1818,  and  were  at  first 
settled  at  St.  Charles,  which  place  was,  however,  soon  ex- 
changed for  Florissant.  As  early  as  1821  a  second  con- 
vent was  necessary  and  was  founded  at  Grand  Coteau. 

Meantime  the  bishop  had  settled  at  St.  Louis  and  built 
a  cathedral.  His  activity  was  prodigious.  He  was  erect- 
ing a  cathedral,  a  church,  a  college  and  a  convent  simul- 
taneously and  daily  shared  his  meals  with  some  twenty 

i  It  Is  Interesting  to  note  that  at  Louisville  ther  took  a  steamboat  for 
St.  Louis.  This  was  less  than  ten  years  after  the  Invention  of  steam  navi- 
gation by  Fulton. 


176  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

persons.  The  fare,  however,  it  is  needless  to  say,  was 
plain  and  simple  in  the  extreme,  as  was  the  episcopal  fur- 
niture. A  friend  from  New  Orleans  who  saw  the  plain 
spruce  cot  on  which  the  bishop  slept  was  shocked  and  sent 
him  a  more  respectable  bedstead.  Here  is  the  bishop's 
letter  of  thanks :  "My  palace  is  too  small  and  too  shabby 
to  admit  so  decorative  a  piece  of  furniture.  You  will, 
therefore,  my  friend,  allow  me  to  exchange  it  for  some- 
thing more  useful.  Bread  is  what  I  need,  I  and  my  house- 
hold. Everything  here  is.  unreasonably  high  and  I  dare 
not  treat  myself  to  the  smallest  piece  of  furniture.  Would 
you  believe  that  we  have  but  a  single  writing  desk,  which 
passes  from  one  member  of  the  household  to  the  other. 
But  this  does  not  lessen  my  good  humor."  1 

Scarcely  had  he  finished  building  his  cathedral  at  St. 
Louis  when  he  started  out  to  visit  his  diocese.  He  now 
found  the  warmest  reception  everywhere,  even  to  the  very 
gates  of  ~New  Orleans.  The  people  not  only  helped  him 
to  build  churches  but  offered  him  the  ground  on  which 
to  build  them.  The  generous  contributions  of  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  enabled  him  to  gratify 
at  once  his  own  generous  nature  and  the  needs  of  the 
faithful.  In  a  few  years  he  had  erected  forty  churches 
down  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  from  St.  Louis  to  New 
Orleans. 

The  zeal  and  the  gentle  spirit  of  the  bishop  produced 
their  natural  effects  even  among  the  rebels  of  ]STew  Or- 
leans. At  first  the  chapel  of  the  Ursuline  convent  suf- 
ficed to  receive  the  entire  loyal  flock  of  the  diocese  under 
its  vicar  general,  M.  Sibourd.  Gradually  two  churches 
opened  their  doors  to  the  vicar  general  and  the  loyalists, 
and  finally  even  Sedella  showed  signs  of  a  change  of  heart. 
When  in  1820  the  bishop  renewed  his  visitation,  opposi- 
tion had  disappeared.  Six  miles  from  "New  Orleans  he 

1  See  Andre  In  "Bulletin  Trimestriel,"  No.  52,  p.  83. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONAEY    BISHOPS    AND   MISSIONARIES      177 

was  met  by  a  deputation  of  the  faithful,  headed  by  Vicar 
General  Sibourd.  Most  notable  among  the  party  that 
came  to  welcome  him  was  the  converted  rebel  Sedella. 
They  accompanied  the  bishop  all  the  way  to  the  city  and 
took  him  to  his  cathedral,  where  he  pontificated  on  Christ- 
mas Day,  1820. 

These  visitations  and  missionary  excursions  were  a  fea- 
ture of  Bishop  Dubourg's  life  while  his  episcopate  lasted. 
Many  of  them  were  far  from  being  pleasure  parties  and 
sometimes  were  not  without  danger.  In  1825  he  paid  a 
missionary  visit  to  Natchitoches,  of  which  the  letter  of  his 
companion,  M.  Anduze,  gives  us  a  graphic  account  We 
subjoin  a  short  extract:  "On  Tuesday,  September  13th, 
we  departed.  M.  Rossi  had  provided  us  with  a  guide 
and  the  necessary  horses  and  kindly  accompanied  us  for 
five  miles  beyond  Opelousas.  From  this  point  began  our 
expedition,  properly  so  called.  Our  order  was  as  fol- 
lows: 1st.  The  guide  on  horseback  leading  a  mule  with 
baggage  by  a  long  cord.  2d.  Charles  also  on  horseback. 
He  had  a  whip  to  hurry  his  mule's  pace.  I  came  next 
and  the  Bishop  closed  the  procession.  Here  we  bade  fare- 
well to  mankind  and  buried  ourselves  in  the  desert.  .  .  . 
On  reaching  the  Bayou-Boeuf  we  were  obliged  to  re- 
lieve the  horses,  who  had  the  greatest  trouble  to  cross 
the  stream,  though  they  carried  only  their  saddles.  But 
we  were  specially  puzzled  how  to  get  out  of  our  own 
troubles.  ...  I  proposed  to  lunch  on  the  opposite  bank: 
the  Bishop  approved  my  proposal  and  wished  to  be  the 
first  to  cross.  The  only  means  to  cross  the  Bayou  were 
two  large  trees  which  had  broken  loose  from  the  two  banks 
and  lay  top-to-top  in  the  middle  of  the  creek.  This  bridge 
had,  moreover,  the  disadvantage  of  being  covered  by  water 
more  than  one  foot  in  depth  throughout  its  length,  so 
that  all  in  all  the  crossing  was  quite  dangerous.  Our 


178      THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

good  Bishop,  resting  on  the  arms  of  the  guide,  undertook 
to  face  the  difficulty. 

"But  he  had  hardly  reached  the  point  where  the  two 
trees  met  when  the  uppermost  tree  on  which  the  Bishop 
was  crossing  was  upset  and  our  two  travelers  stood  up 
to  the  arm-pits  in  water.  This  shock,  though  violent,  did 
not  discourage  him;  he  climbed  on  the  second  tree  and 
with  the  guide's  help  reached  the  other  bank.  .  .  .  He 
got  only  a  few  scratches  of  which  the  Bishop  made  very 
light.  The  guide  and  the  negro  carried  the  baggage  as 
well  as  they  could.  Finally  we  took  up  our  march  in  the 
same  order  as  before.  The  path  we  followed  was  at  most 
three  or  four  feet  wide  and  passed  over  boggy  ground 
bristling  with  cypress  roots  ending  in  sharp  points,  on 
which  we  feared  every  moment  to  be  thrown  by  the  horses 
which  drew  up  their  backs  to  extricate  themselves  from 
the  sticky  mud.  .  .  .  We  had  scarcely  escaped  hence  when 
we  plunged  into  impenetrable  thickets  of  reeds  which, 
crossing  in  every  direction,  threatened  to  pierce  us.  .  .  ."  * 
These  were  only  the  initial  difficulties  which  they  had  to 
encounter  before  reaching  Natchitoches.  They  suffice  to 
show  what  were  the  enjoyments  of  missionary  bishops 
at  the  time. 

Besides  these  parochial  visitations,  which  took  up  a 
great  part  of  the  time,  Bishop  Dubourg  was  also  an  Indian 
missionary  or  rather  the  director  of  a  great  part  of  the 
western  missions  to  the  redskins.  He  came  in  contact  with 
them  for  the  first  time  in  St.  Louis  in  1820  when  the  head 
chief  of  the  Osages  called  upon  him  there.  The  next 
year  he  sent  the  Lazarist,  Father  de  Lacroix  to  visit 
the  Indians  in  their  homes  up  the  Mississippi.  The  fol- 
lowing year,  he  repeated  his  visit  and  penetrated  fifty 
miles  further  west,  beyond  the  homes  of  the  Osages.  Ac- 
cording to  Odin  he  divided  up  the  Indian  missions  be- 

1  See  Andre,  loo.  cit.,  No.  53,  pp.  219-220. 


STJLPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       179 

tween  the  Lazarists,  who  labored  on  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi, and  the  Jesuits,  who  evangelized  the  redskins  on  the 
banks  of  the  Missouri. 

As  to  the  Jesuits,  M.  Dubourg  deserves  the  credit  of 
not  only  founding  the  Indian  missions  later  made  famous 
by  Father  De  Smet  and  his  Belgian  confreres,  but  of  se- 
curing the  services  of  these  missionaries  for  the  West 
There  had  arrived  from  Belgium  in  1821  a  band  of 
Jesuits  consisting  of  Father  De  Smet  and  five  others,  some 
of  them  novices,  and  they  had  taken  up  their  residence  at 
Whitemarsh,  Maryland.  Various  discouragements  led 
them  to  think  of  returning  to  their  native  land,  when 
Bishop  Dubourg  accidentally  paid  them  a  visit  (1823). 
He  was  then  engaged  in  negotiations  with  the  Government 
at  Washington  relative  to  the  Indian  missions  in  Mis- 
souri and  farther  west  The  Indian  superintendent  had 
received  him  with  much  favor  and  listened  with  approval 
to  the  project  of  sending  to  the  redskins  the  blackrobes, 
for  whom  they  had  applied.  As  an  earnest  of  this  ap- 
proval the  United  States  Government  promised  to  pay 
$200  annually  to  each  of  four  or  five  missionaries.  The 
young  Flemish  Jesuits  enthusiastically  welcomed  the  pro- 
posed Indian  mission,  and  agreed  to  transfer  their  novi- 
tiate to  Florissant,  near  St.  Louis,  thus  becoming  the 
apostles  of  the  Indians  on  the  upper  Missouri  and  farther 
west.1 

Bishop  Dubourg  had  thus  successfully  provided  for  the 
most  urgent  necessities  of  his  extensive  diocese.  At  the 
same  time  he  felt  that  one  man  did  not  suffice  to  supply 
the  needs  of  this  widespread  field  of  labor.  Accordingly 
he  had  the  distinguished  Lazarist,  Father  Rosati,  ap- 
pointed his  coadjutor  (March,  1824),  and  left  to  him  the 
government  of  upper  Louisiana,  devoting  himself  espe- 
cially to  New  Orleans.  Here,  however,  he  found  that  the 

1  Letter  of  M.  Dubourg  to  his  brother,  March  17,  1823.  In  -Bulletin  Trl- 
mestriel,"  No.  53,  p.  214.     Also  letter  of  August  16,  1823,  ibid.,  p.  215. 


180  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

old  spirit  of  unrest  had  not  yet  died  out.  Believing  that 
it  might  be  easier  for  another  to  surmount  the  difficulties 
which  met  him  here  he  sent  his  resignation  to  Home.  The 
Holy  See,  however,  was  unwilling  to  part  with  the  serv- 
ices of  so  able  a  bishop.  While  his  resignation  was 
therefore  accepted,  he  was  transferred  in  1826  to  the 
see  of  Montauban  in  Trance,  to  succeed  Cardinal  Cheverus. 
For  seven  years  he  had  presided  over  its  destinies  to  the 
satisfaction  of  Eome  and  his  flock,  when  he  was  promoted 
to  the  archbishopric  of  Besangon.  He  was  not,  however, 
to  enjoy  his  new  honors  for  long,  being  called  to  his  re- 
ward on  December  12,  1833. 

Bishop  Dubourg  was  the  author  of  "The  Sons  of  St. 
Dominick"  and  of  a  pamphlet  entitled  "St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary and  the  Catholics  at  Large  Vindicated,"  besides  other 
controversial  writings. 

V MOST   REVEREND   AMBROSE   MABECHAL,    SS. 

Until  the  year  1817  Sulpician  missionary  bishops  had 
been  appointed  only  for  the  western  and  southern  sees  of 
the  United  States.  In  that  year,  however,  the  archbish- 
opric of  Baltimore  was  conferred  on  the  Most  Reverend 
Ambrose  Marechal,  a  Sulpician,  who  for  five  years  be- 
fore his  promotion  had  been  professor  of  theology  at  St. 
Mary's  Seminary.  Born  at  Ingres  in  1764,  he  pursued 
his  classical  studies  at  Orleans  and  then  chose  the  law 
for  his  profession.  Before  long,  however,  he  felt  him- 
self called  to  the  clerical  state  and  entered  the  Seminary 
of  Orleans  where  he  pursued  his  theological  studies  under 
the  Sulpicians.  He  was  compelled  to  flee  from  France 
on  the  very  day  of  his  ordination  and  reached  Baltimore 
with  MM.  Richard  and  Ciquard  on  June  24,  1792.  He 
was  sent  by  Archbishop  Carroll  to  the  missions  in  St. 
Mary's  County  and  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland, 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       181 

where  he  worked  until  1799,  when  he  was  appointed  pro- 
fessor of  theology  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  In  1801-02  he 
taught  philosophy  at  Georgetown  College  and  in  1803  M. 
Emery  recalled  him  to  France  where  there  was  a  great 
want  of  Sulpicians  in  various  dioceses. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Sulpician  Fathers  from  the  French 
seminaries  by  Napoleon  in  1811  brought  M.  Marechal 
back  to  Baltimore  and  to  his  old  position  in  St.  Mary's. 
Here  he  gave  himself  to  his  duties  with  heart  and  soul, 
and  soon  gained  the  confidence,  not  only  of  his  confreres 
and  scholars,  but  also  of  Archbishop  Carroll.  M.  Mare- 
chal was  not  only  a  theologian  of  distinction  but  a  scholar 
of  great  attainments  in  literature  and  mathematics,  as 
appeared  from  the  papers  on  the  latter  subject  left  by  him 
at  his  death.  He  was  a  well-read  historian  and  a  man  of 
general  information.  Moreover,  his  learning  was  always 
at  his  command,  for  he  shone  in  conversation,  shedding 
light  on  every  subject  which  he  discussed.  Above  all  he 
was  a  charming  gentleman,  attractive,  polite  and  kind, 
without  pretension  and  full  of  consideration  for  others. 

That  such  a  man  should  have  riveted  upon  himself  the 
eyes  of  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him  was  natural. 
Accordingly,  we  find  that  in  1814  the  American  bishops 
with  one  voice  recommended  him  for  the  vacant  see  of 
New  York.  Outside  influences,  as  well  as  his  own  re- 
luctance and  the  efforts  of  his  Sulpician  brethren,  saved 
him  from  what  he  looked  upon  as  a  heavy  burden,  but 
the  trial  was  only  postponed.  On  July  3,  1816,  the  Bulls 
appointing  him  to  the  see  of  Philadelphia  as  the  successor 
of  Bishop  Egan  reached  him  at  Baltimore.  Again  he 
strove  to  avoid  episcopal  honors  and  made  an  earnest  ap- 
peal to  Cardinal  Litta,  the  head  of  the  Congregation  of 
the  Propaganda,  to  spare  him  the  dreaded  change.  The 
cardinal  appealed  to  him  to  submit,  but  as  he  did  not  re- 
quire submission  in  virtue  of  obedience,  M.  Marechal 


182  THE    STTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

thought  himself  justified  in  persisting  in  his  refusal,  and 
escaped  promotion  the  second  time. 

But  the  relief  was  only  temporary.  The  following  year 
(1817)  Archbishop  Neale  felt  that  his  health  required 
him  to  ask  Rome  for  a  coadjutor,  and  proposed  M.  Mare- 
chal  as  his  assistant.  On  July  4,  1817,  the  Roman  au- 
thorities signed  the  Bulls  appointing  him  coadjutor  of 
Bishop  Neale  with  the  right  of  succession,  and  they 
reached  the  bishop-elect  at  Baltimore  on  November  10th. 
Meantime,  however,  Bishop  Neale  had  been  called  to  his 
reward.  Monseigneur  Marechal  was  therefore  immedi- 
ately consecrated  archbishop  and  took  charge  of  the  diocese 
without  delay. 

He  sought  first  of  all  to  become  well  acquainted  with 
his  diocese.  He  therefore  lost  no  time  in  visiting  its  vari- 
ous parts,  but  especially  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Charles- 
ton, which  were  distracted  by  unpleasant  disorders.  At 
Charleston  the  notorious  Father  Gallagher  had  for  many 
years  kept  the  faithful  in  a  turmoil  and  usurped  the  rights 
of  the  lawful  parish  priest,  Father  de  la  Cloriviere; 
while  at  Norfolk  the  Dominican,  Carbry,  was  causing 
no  less  trouble  with  the  help  of  the  parish  trustees.  Arch- 
bishop Marechal  firmly  opposed  the  usurpers,  and  by  ju- 
diciously mingling  authority  with  charity,  succeeded  in 
restoring  peace  and  order.  By  his  wise  action  in  another 
matter  which  was  disturbing  the  American  Church,  he  de- 
served its  gratitude  for  all  times. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  small  number 
of  the  American  clergy  at  the  time  Archbishop  Carroll 
was  named  bishop  in  1789,  and  to  the  difficulty  of  filling 
its  ranks  during  the  administration  of  Archbishop  Carroll, 
notwithstanding  all  his  efforts  to  build  it  up.  It  is  true 
that  besides  the  native  clergy  a  number  of  priests  from 
abroad  had  come  into  the  country  and  that  among  them 
there  were  men  of  great  ability  and  character.  This  is 


8TJLPICIAN    MISSIONABY    BISHOPS   AND   MI8SIONABIE8      183 

especially  true  of  the  priests  who  were  expelled  from 
France  by  the  Terror.  But  as  might  be  expected,  some 
undesirable  elements  had  likewise  found  their  way  to 
the  United  States,  and  they  were  to  be  found  not  only 
in  New  Orleans,  Charleston  and  Norfolk,  but  in  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York,  where,  as  in  the  South,  they  exer- 
cised considerable  influence  among  the  laity,  especially 
the  trustees. 

Now,  when  in  course  of  time  bishops  were  multiplied 
in  the  country,  and  Archbishop  Carroll  became  head  of 
a  hierarchy,  the  question  arose  as  to  how  the  bishops 
were  to  be  selected,  of  whom  the  country  stood  in  need. 
Rome,  of  course,  had  the  final  appointive  power,  but  who 
was  to  advise  Rome  in  making  the  selection  and  from 
whom  was  the  selection  to  be  made?  At  first  Bishop  Car- 
roll was  the  only  bishop,  and  his  remote  situation  made  it 
desirable  to  have  his  judgment  supported  by  others.  Be- 
sides there  was  but  a  small  number  of  candidates  who  pos- 
sessed the  virtues  and  ability  requisite  in  a  bishop. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  of  the  priests  laboring 
in  the  Lord's  American  vineyard  there  were  two  classes 
who,  by  their  own  choice,  were  excluded  from  the  epis- 
copacy, and  who  were  perhaps  best  qualified  for  its  duties. 
These  were  the  Jesuits  and  the  Sulpicians.  The  Jesuit, 
as  is  well  known,  at  his  entrance  into  the  Order  promises 
to  decline  the  episcopal  dignity  unless  the  Pope  should 
give  him  a  positive  command  to  accept  it.  Besides,  after 
its  suppression,  the  Order  had  been  re-established  in  the 
United  States  only  since  1807.  The  elder  members  were 
therefore  unavailable  for  episcopal  sees  because  of  their 
advanced  age  and  the  younger  members  because  of  their 
being  relatively  inexperienced. 

The  members  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  though  not 
bound  by  positive  vows  to  refuse  the  episcopacy,  promise 
on  entering  the  Society  to  avoid,  ecclesiastical  dignities. 


184:  THE    STTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

and  the  entire  history  of  the  Company  proves  how  thor- 
oughly in  earnest  its  members  were  in  making  this  prom- 
ise. Even  in  the  youthful  American  Kepublic,  the  Sul- 
picians  who  were  raised  to  the  episcopal  dignity  accepted 
it  only  after  positive  unwillingness.  This  was  true  in  the 
cases  of  Bishops  Flaget,  Dubourg  and  David,  and  Arch- 
bishop Marechal  himself  had  given  repeated  proofs  of 
the  same  disposition  before  his  final  elevation  to  the  see 
of  Baltimore. 

When  the  far  from  numerous  secular  clergy  offered  a 
suitable  candidate,  as  was  the  case  with  M.   Cheverus, 
who  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Boston  in  1810,  Eome  did 
not  hesitate  to  raise  him  to  the  episcopal  rank.     Eome's 
attitude  was  the  same  towards  such  regulars  as  possessed 
the  requisite  qualifications  and  were  resident  in  the  coun- 
try, and  who  were  not  prevented  by  their  vows  from  ac- 
cepting the  bishopric.     Thus  she  named  the  Franciscan, 
Father  Egan,  Bishop  of  Philadelphia  in  1810,  and  the 
Dominican,  Father  Edward  D.  Fenwick,  Bishop  of  Cin- 
cinnati in  1822.     But  when  in  1808  a  bishop  was  to  be 
nominated  for  the  new  see  of  New  York,  the  Eoman  au- 
thorities conferred  the  dignity  on  the  Dominican,  Father 
Luke  Concanen,  who  resided  at  Home  and  had  never  been 
in  the  United  States.     When  Bishop  Concanen  died  in 
Naples   (1810)   before  being  able  to  reach  his  see,  his 
successor  was  the  Dominican,  Father  John  Connolly,  a 
resident  of  Eome,  who  was  equally  unacquainted  with  his 
future  field  of  activity.    Dr.  Henry  Conwell,  Vicar  Gen- 
eral of  Armagh,  Ireland,  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Phila- 
delphia in  1820,  although  he  was  a  stranger  to  the  United! 
States.     Similarly  Dr.  Patrick  Kelly,  president  of  Birch- 
field  College,  Kilkenny,  Ireland,  was  selected  to  be  Bishop 
of  Eichmond,  Virginia,  in  1820.     He  was  not  only  a 
stranger  to  the  United  States,  but  at  his  consecration  in 
Europe  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  George  III.    At  the 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES       185 

same  time  the  distinguished  and  able  Bishop  England, 
who  had  up  to  that  time  been  president  of  the  Cork  semi- 
nary, was  promoted  to  the  recently  created  see  of  Charles- 
ton. He,  however,  positively  refused  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  King  of  England  tendered  to  him  at 
the  time  of  his  consecration. 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  a  few  years  after  Monseigneur 
Marechal  was  raised  to  the  see  of  Baltimore  and  about 
the  time  he  set  out  for  Rome  on  his  ad  limina  visit  in 
1821,  four  out  of  eight  American  bishops  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  their  sees  without  having  seen  the  country 
which  they  were  to  govern.    No  doubt  it  was  not  unusual 
at  Rome  to  send  to  missionary  countries  bishops  who  were 
strangers  to  their  sees  before  their  appointment,  but  the 
United  States  could  not  be  placed  in  the  same  class  as 
China  and  Japan.    Moreover,  in  some  cases,  the  prelates 
sent  had  proved  to  be  unacceptable  to  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  because  they  were  subjects  of  the  power 
with  which  the  United  States  had  recently  been  at  war. 
When,  therefore,  Archbishop  Marechal  reached  Rome 
in  1821,  he  drew  the  attention  of  the  Propaganda  to  these 
considerations  and  to  the  fact  that  from  the  beginning  of 
the  American  hierarchy  Archbishop  Carroll  had  urged 
that  American  appointments  should  be  recommended  by 
members  of  that  hierarchy.    He  showed  so  much  tact  and 
ability  in  pleading  his  cause  that  the  Pope  and  the  Propa- 
ganda were  readily  convinced  of  the  wisdom  of  the  policy 
advocated  by  him.     "We  admit,"  said  the  Archbishop  in 
a  memoir  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  "that  we  have  no  right 
to  present  candidates  for  the  episcopacy,  but  unquestion- 
ably someone  must  nominate  them.    Who  then  will  be  able 
to  know  the  candidates  worthy  of  being  entrusted  with 
such  important  missions  ?    Strangers  can  not  claim  to  be 
acquainted  with  the  needs  of  the  country."  * 

*Andr«  In  "Bulletin  TrimeBtriel,"  No.  64,  p.  865. 


186  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  principles  then  suggested  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Baltimore  have  ever  since  regulated  the  selection  of  bish- 
ops in  the  United  States,  and  the  Church  of  the  United 
States  has  recognized  his  service  to  its  true  interests. 

On  the  same  occasion,  he  drew  the  attention  of  the  Ro- 
man prelates  to  the  controversy  on  the  rights  claimed  by 
lay  trustees  to  control  the  church  property  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  issued  some  rules  on  the 
subject,  which  tranquillized  the  troubles  for  the  time  but 
did  not  settle  them  definitely.  His  visit  to  Rome,  there- 
fore, proved  most  beneficial  to  his  diocese  and  the  entire 
American  Church.  He  returned  to  Baltimore  at  the  end 
of  1822. 

Before  leaving  for  Rome,  Archbishop  Marechal  had  the 
satisfaction  of  consecrating  his  new  cathedral  (May  21, 
1821).  This  then  much  admired  specimen  of  architecture 
was  in  a  way  especially  the  work  of  the  Sulpicians. 
When,  because  of  the  expense,  Archbishop  Carroll  hesi- 
tated to  select  the  spot  on  which  it  now  stands,  the  memo- 
rial of  MM.  Nagot,  Tessier,  David,  Babad,  Flaget  and 
Dubourg  led  him  to  waive  his  objections.  In  1821  the 
people  of  Baltimore  saw  the  beautiful  structure  finished 
and  Archbishop  Marechal  dedicated  it  to  God's  service  to 
the  great  satisfaction,  not  only  of  the  Catholics,  but  of  the 
Protestants  as  well. 

During  his  stay  in  Rome  the  archbishop,  in  order  to 
encourage  the  seminary,  had  induced  Pope  Pius  VII  to 
erect  it  into  a  papal  university  by  a  brief  dated  April  18, 
1822.  By  way  of  showing  its  new  rank,  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Theology  was  conferred  on  the  Reverend  M. 
Whitfield,  Vicar  General  of  Baltimore;  M.  Deluol,  one 
of  the  professors  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  and  M.  Dam- 
phoux,  the  president  of  St.  Mary's  College,  on  January 
25,  1824.  Clearly  the  archbishop  had  not  forgotten  his 
old  confreres  of  St.  Sulpice  and  was  determined  to 


MOST  REV.  AMBROSE  MAR&CIIAI,, 
Third  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      187 

strengthen  his  seminary  by  every  means  in  his  power.  He 
conferred  these  degrees  at  a  solemn  function  in  the  new 
cathedral,  which  made  a  great  impression  on  the  people. 
With  a  moderation  which  is  so  distinctive  a  quality  in  the 
Company  of  St.  Sulpice,  St.  Mary's  Seminary  has  seldom 
exercised  the  prerogative. 

Having  settled  to  his  satisfaction  all  the  disorders  and 
troubles  which  faced  him  at  the  beginning  of  his  episco- 
pate, Monseigneur  Marechal  ruled  his  flock  in  peace  after 
his  return  from  Rome.  Throughout  his  diocese  every- 
thing promised  progress,  and  elsewhere,  in  every  part  of 
the  new  Republic,  the  Church  gave  evidence  of  prosperity. 
He  did  not,  however,  fail  to  see  that  this  prosperity  would 
bring  new  problems,  and  planned  to  summon  a  great  Pro- 
vincial Council  to  provide  for  future  needs,  and  especially 
to  secure  the  regular  and  uniform  development  of  the 
American  Church.  He  was  not  in  favor  of  premature 
action,  however,  and  thought  it  wise  to  postpone  summon- 
ing this  Council.  But  in  the  year  1826,  while  giving 
Confirmation  at  Emmitsburg,  he  was  taken  with  an  ill- 
ness which  soon  developed  into  the  fatal  disease  of  which 
he  died  on  January  28,  1829.  His  death  was  regretted 
by  all  the  citizens  of  Baltimore  and  the  people  of  his  dio- 
cese. 

VI — RIGHT  REVEREND  JOHN  DUBOIS,  D.D. 

Right  Reverend  John  Dubois,  D.D.,  third  Bishop  of 
New  York,  is  an  old  acquaintance.  A  cultured  Parisian 
gentleman,  he  was  forced,  a  few  years  after  his  ordina- 
tion, to  leave  France;  was  introduced  by  La  Fayette  to 
many  distinguished  Virginians,  such  as  President  Monroe 
and  Patrick  Henry;  was  a  zealous  missionary  in  Mary- 
land and  founder  of  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmits- 
burg. In  1826  when  the  Papal  Bulls  took  him  away  from 


188  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

his  beloved  Mountain  College  which  he  had  twice  rebuilt, 
he  was  sixty-three  years  old  and  a  vigorous,  clever  and 
affable  man,  whom  President  Andrew  Jackson  pronounced 
the  most  perfect  gentleman  he  had  ever  met.  He  had 
been  a  Sulpician  for  seventeen  years,  and  though  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  last  year  had  severed  his  connection 
with  the  Sulpician  Company,  he  remained  a  Sulpician  in 
spirit.  As  an  old  confrere  he  made  a  preparatory  retreat 
before  consecration  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore. 
He  bore  with  him  to  New  York  the  friendly  sympathy  of 
the  Sulpicians  and  the  best  wishes  of  the  Maryland  people, 
among  whom  he  had  spent  so  many  happy  years.  The 
aged  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton  presented  him  with  the 
episcopal  ring.  The  new  cathedral  at  Baltimore,  where 
he  was  consecrated  by  Archbishop  Marechal,  was  filled 
with  throngs  of  well-wishers,  and  yet  the  man  who  had 
been  specially  selected  to  convey  the  good  wishes  of  his 
future  flock  bade  him  no  friendly  welcome,  but  prophe- 
sied evil  days  for  the  bishop  on  that  festive  occasion. 
The  Reverend  Mr.  Taylor,  who  was  guilty  of  this  remark- 
able piece  of  bad  manners,  had  the  good  sense  to  resign 
the  following  week  as  the  pastor  of  the  "New  York  ca- 
thedral and  betook  himself  beyond  the  Atlantic. 

Still,  Mr.  Taylor's  greeting  foreboded  unpleasant  days 
for  the  new  Bishop.  There  were  in  "New  York  at  this  time 
ambitious  men  who  craved  for  undeserved  honors.  They 
had  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  late  Bishop  Connolly, 
and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  charge  Archbishop  Marechal 
with  intriguing  to  fill  the  diocese  of  New  York  with  his 
friends,  to  accuse  the  Bishop-elect  of  vulgar  ambitions  and 
to  impute  to  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  a  spirit  wholly  un- 
known to  it.  But  though  the  archbishop  and  bishop  and 
the  Sulpicians  generally  repelled  these  unworthy  insinua- 
tions, the  new  prelate  was  doomed  to  taste  the  fruits  of 
this  malicious  spirit.  On  the  Sunday  following  the  con- 


STJLPICIAN    MISSION AEY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      189 

secration,  Bishop  Dubois  preached  in  his  cathedral  in  Mul- 
berry Street.  He  strove  to  impress  upon  his  flock  that 
he  was  animated  by  nothing  but  benevolence  toward  them, 
and  especially  assured  them  of  his  broadmindedness, 
which  saw  no  difference  between  the  children  of  St.  Louis 
and  the  children  of  St.  Patrick.  His  friendly  words  could 
not  dispel  the  spirit  of  suspicion  and  malevolence.  The 
writer  has  met  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  knew  the  old 
bishop,  who  had  the  pleasure  of  entertaining  him  at  their 
homes,  and  who  still  kept  the  room  in  which  they  gave  him 
hospitality  exactly  as  it  was  when  he  was  their  guest 
They  bore  witness  enthusiastically  to  the  kind,  noble  and 
generous  character  of  the  bishop,  and  scorned  the  idea 
that  there  was  in  him  anything  unworthy  or  insincere; 
and  such  testimony  as  they  gave  agreed  with  that  of  the 
men  and  boys  of  the  Mountain  College  and  with  the  rec- 
ord which  the  bishop  had  made  for  himself  in  Maryland. 
We  cannot  dwell  at  length  upon  the  pettifogging  attempt 
to  annoy  the  good  prelate,  which  was  due  principally  to 
the  clergy  of  his  own  cathedral,  such  as  Father  Levins,  a 
clever  but  erratic  man.  The  troubles  were  the  sequel, 
partly  of  the  disorders  under  Bishop  Dubois'  predecessor, 
and  partly  of  the  doings  of  small  spirits,  some  of  whom 
were  narrow  rather  than  wicked.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
these  annoyances  did  not  interfere  with  the  efficiency  of 
the  Bishop's  administration. 

Immediately  on  his  accession,  he  showed  that  he  was 
determined  to  do  his  duty  to  the  full.  Forthwith  he 
made  excursions  to  the  New  Jersey  part  of  his  diocese 
and  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  metropolis,  dedicating 
churches,  encouraging  the  clergy  and  inspiring  the  laity. 
When  he  had  become  familiar  with  the  situation  in  the 
neighborhood  of  New  York  he  set  out  to  acquaint  himself 
with  the  more  distant  parts  of  the  diocese.  Alone  and 
unattended,  the  old  gentleman  went,  by  way  of  the  Hud- 


190  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

son,  to  Albany,  to  central  New  York,  a,nd  to  Buffalo, 
preaching,  hearing  confessions  and  administering  the  Sac- 
raments. At  Buffalo  he  strove  to  settle  the  quarrels  that 
had  arisen  between  the  pastors  and  their  flocks.  He  even 
visited  the  only  Indian  colony~in  his  diocese  and  induced 
the  redskins  to  give  up  some  of  their  claims.  To  this 
visitation,  which  covered  3,000  miles,  he  devoted  four 
strenuous  years,  not  without  greatly  impairing  his  health. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  administration  he  gave  his 
attention  to  the  problem  of  providing  good  and  loyal  pas- 
tors for  his  flock.  The  great  diocese  had  no  seminary, 
and  his  means  were  of  the  scantiest,  but  this  did  not  dis- 
courage him.  He  determined  during  his  visit  to  Rome 
(1831)  to  lay  this  essential  need  before  Pope  Pius  VII 
and  request  his  assistance.  The  Holy  Father  had  a  sym- 
pathetic heart  and  an  open  purse  for  him.  From  his 
scanty  means  he  furnished  him  the  sum  needed  to  buy  the 
land  required  for  his  first  seminary  at  Nyack  on  the  Hud- 
son. The  work  of  building  went  on  apace;  the  faculty, 
including  the  priest  who  later  became  the  first  American 
cardinal,  was  already  selected  and  had  taken  possession 
of  the  new  home  of  learning ;  an  attractive  new  chapel  had 
been  built;  the  old  Knickerbockers  who  had  looked  with 
suspicion  on  their  strange  new  neighbors,  had  not  only 
become  reconciled  but  friendly,  when  one  fatal  night  the 
seminary  became  the  prey  of  the  flames  and  the  Bishop 
saw  his  most  cherished  plans  doomed  to  disappointment 
(1834). 

Nothing  daunted  by  this  disaster,  a  year  or  two  later  he 
appealed  to  his  clergy  and  laity  to  further  this  necessary 
work  and  to  spare  no  personal  efforts  to  provide  the  much 
needed  seminary.  In  1838,  he  bought  the  fine  mansion 
of  M.  John  Lafarge,  of  Lafargeville  in  Jefferson  County, 
to  be  the  home  of  a  new  seminary  which  was  to  provide 
education,  not  only  for  students  of  theology,  but  for  those 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      191 

pursuing  secondary  studies  in  general.  The  success  of 
Mount  St.  Mary's  College  had  convinced  him  that  he  might 
expect  the  same  in  a  place  distant  from  New  York.  But 
though  the  new  home  of  learning  was  most  attractive,  its 
inconvenient  location  wrecked  it,  and  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul's  Seminary  of  Lafargeville  died  after  a  year.  When, 
however,  in  consequence  of  declining  health,  Bishop  Du- 
bois  had  received  the  assistance  of  a  coadjutor  in  the  per- 
son of  John  Hughes,  who,  as  a  pupil  of  the  Mountain 
Seminary,  was  equally  convinced  of  the  need  of  a  semi- 
nary and  college  for  the  great  diocese  of  New  York, 
the  coadjutor,  in  the  name  of  the  bishop,  bought  and  or- 
ganized St.  John's  Seminary  and  College  at  Fordham  in 
1841.  This  measure,  which  was  in  harmony  with  Bishop 
Dubois'  seminary  policy,  was  taken  but  a  short  time  be- 
fore the  old  prelate's  death. 

This  request  for  a  coadjutor  had  been  made  in  1838. 
Bishop  Dubois  had  been  approaching  old  age  when  ap- 
pointed to  the  see  of  New  York.  His  three  visitations 
of  his  diocese  had  worn  down  and  finally  broken  his  health, 
which  had  been  also  impaired  by  the  constant  annoyances 
already  referred  to.  But  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks  and 
of  the  disaster  which  foiled  some  of  his  best  intentioned 
efforts,  Bishop  Dubois'  administration  proved  a  blessing 
to  the  diocese.  He  encouraged  the  Sisters  of  Charity 
whose  director  he  had  so  long  been  at  Emmitsburg.  He 
was  the  founder  of  hospitals  and  orphan  asylums, 
of  which,  in  his  days,  the  Catholics  stood  in  sore 
need.  The  Catholic  places  of  worship  grew  under  him  in 
number  and  in  beauty;  Catholic  education  was  fostered 
with  a  loving  hand;  Catholic  publishers  started  up,  and 
periodical  literature  was  encouraged  and  grew  in  influ- 
ence, for  those  were  the  days  of  the  "Truth  Teller,"  found- 
ed by  Messrs.  Pardow  and  Denman  just  before  the  bishop's 


192  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

accession.  This  progress  was  made  in  a  few  years,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  times  were  marked  by  the 
first  outbreak  of  Protestant  bigotry,  which  threatened  the 
liberty  of  the  Church  and  the  existence  of  its  institutions. 
But  the  veteran  who  had  seen  the  days  of  the  French 
Terror  was  not  daunted  by  these  new  gadflies,  which  could 
not  thrive  in  American  air,  and  besides  he  had  placed 
at  his  side  his  old  Emmitsburg  pupil,  the  vigorous,  stout 
and  fearless  John  Hughes,  who  was  destined  to  inaugurate 
a  new  era  as  the  first  Archbishop  of  New  York. 

In  1838  the  masterful  old  prelate  determined,  in  spite 
of  his  years  and  his  infirmities,  to  make  another  visita- 
tion of  his  diocese.  The  will  was  there  but  the  strength 
of  the  bishop  was  fairly  exhausted.  He  had  suffered  re- 
peated paralytic  strokes  which  weakened  him  both  men- 
tally and  physically.  The  attention  of  Eome  had  been 
called  to  the  situation  and  in  August,  1839,  two  months 
after  his  return  to  New  York  from  his  last  visitation, 
Archbishop  Eccleston  of  Baltimore  was  commissioned  to 
announce  to  him  the  decision  of  the  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties. It  transferred  the  administration  of  the  diocese 
from  shoulders  unable  any  longer  to  bear  their  burden 
to  the  vigorous  shoulders  of  the  young  coadjutor,  Bishop 
Hughes.  At  first  the  old  prelate  could  not  realize  the 
blow  which  had  fallen  upon  him.  His  mental  weakness 
took  the  form  of  obstinacy  and  he  could  not  reconcile  him- 
self to  abandon  the  exercise  of  authority  to  which  he  had 
been  accustomed  for  a  lifetime.  But  gradually  he  grew 
conscious  of  his  own  feebleness  and  retiring  from  all  pub- 
lic life  he  prepared  himself  for  the  end  by  exercises  of 
devotion,  for  he  had  ever  been  a  man  of  exemplary  piety. 
Daily  he  celebrated  the  holy  sacrifice  and  even  on  the  day 
which  summoned  him  to  his  reward  he  was  not  obliged 
to  forego  this  much  valued  privilege.  He  died  in  the  Lord 


SULPICIAX    MISSIONABY    BISHOPS    AND    MISSIONARIES      193 

on  December  20,  1842,  with  a  gentle  smile  on  his  lips, 
after  invoking  the  holy  names  of  Jesus,  Mary  and  Joseph.1 

X£?rua  fS11?r  a<*ou°t  of  Bishop  Dubols'  administration  see  the  article 
vol  Biish°!^71^ubo18'  by  Charles  O.  llerbermann,  la  "Records  and  Studies" 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ST.  MART'S  SEMINARY 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  M.  DELUOL,  1829-1849 

It  is  time  to  return  to  the  history  of  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary, the  mother  institution  of  the  Company  of  St.  Sul- 
pice  in  the  United  States.  When  we  spoke  of  it  last,  we> 
reported  the  arrival  in  1829  of  M.  Carriere  at  Baltimore 
as  visitor  representing  M.  Gamier,  the  superior-general 
in  Paris.  He  had  come  at  the  invitation  of  M.  Tessier,  the 
aged  superior  of  the  American  Sulpicians,  and  was  to 
examine  into  the  condition,  not  only  of  the  seminary,  but 
of  the  entire  Society  in  the  United  States.  For  M.  Tes- 
sier, besides  being  the  head  of  the  seminary,  had  authority 
over  all  the  members  of  the  Society,  whether  employed 
in  seminary  or  in  missionary  work. 

The  visitor,  M.  Carriere,  was  a  very  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice  in  France.  He  had 
the  entire  confidence  of  the  superior-general,  M.  Gamier, 
and  knew  his  views.  That  he  possessed  the  confidence 
of  all  the  French  Sulpicians  alsoj  appears  from  his  stand- 
ing in  the  French  Company  of  St.  Sulpice,  for  he  was 
not  only  a  scholarly  theologian  but  held  the  place  of  Vicar- 
general  of  Paris,  and  subsequently  (from  1850),  that  of 
superior-general  of  the  entire  Society.  Of  course,  when 
he  arrived  at  Baltimore,  he  was  received  with  the  honors 
due  to  his  position,  not  only  by  the  Sulpicians,  but  also 
by  Archbishop  Whitfield,  who  invited  him  to  share  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  first  Council  of  Baltimore.  What  was 
the  mission  of  this  distinguished  gentleman?  According 

194 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELTTOL,    1829-1849         195 

to  the  wishes  of  M.  Tessier  and  M.  Gamier  he  was  to  ex- 
amine into  the  American  branch  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  not 
only  to  report  thereon  to  M.  Gamier,  but  he  was  also 
to  take  such  immediate  steps  as  the  situation  suggested. 
The  first  consequence  of  his  mission  was  M.  Tessier's  spon- 
taneous resignation  of  his  office  and  its  acceptance.  The 
reason  of  this  step  was  sufficiently  plain.  The  old  superior, 
for  he  was  now  seventy  years  of  age,  had  already  repeated- 
ly asked  in  vain  to  be  relieved  of  his  duties  and  may  have 
foreseen  that  his  age  ill-fitted  him  to  inaugurate  the 
changes  demanded  by  the  times.  But  M.  Tessier's  with- 
drawal was  only  the  first  result  of  M.  Carriere's  mission, 
to  appreciate  which  it  will  be  necessary  to  review  in  brief 
what  St.  Mary's  Seminary  and  its  dependencies  had  be- 
come. 

From  the  year  1826,  when  the  Sulpicians  gave  up  the 
College  of  Mount  St.  Mary  at  Emmitsburg,  only  two  in- 
stitutions remained  under  the  control  of  the  Company, 
St.  Mary's  Seminary  and  St.  Mary's  College.  In  these 
twelve  members  of  the  Society  were  employed,  including 
M.  Tessier,  the  superior.  The  other  members  were  MM. 
Damphoux,  Deluol,  Lhomme,  Elder,  Randanne,  Wheeler, 
Knight,  Hoskins,  Joubert,  Chanche,  Hickey  and  Eccles- 
ton.  MM.  Deluol  and  Lhomme  with  M.  Tessier  formed 
the  faculty  of  the  seminary,  the  other  gentlemen  being  offi- 
cials of  St.  Mary's  College.  To  the  seminary  was  attached 
a  beautiful  chapel  which  had  practically  become  a  par- 
ish church  for  that  district  of  Baltimore.  The  gentlemen 
of  St.  Sulpice  also  assisted  at  the  Sunday  services  at  the 
Cathedral  together  with  the  seminary  students,  and  some 
of  the  priests  acted  as  directors  of  St.  Joseph's  Convent, 
Emmitsburg  (the  community  of  Mother  Seton),  and  of 
the  Oblate  Sisters  of  Providence,  which  community  was 
then  in  process  of  formation.  Several  of  the  older  mem- 
bers of  St.  Sulpice,  such  as  Monseigneur  Flaget  and  Mon- 


196  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

seigneur  Dubois,  had  become  bishops,  and  were  therefore 
independent  of  the  Society  and  in  no  wise  subject  to  the 
rule  of  its  superior. 

St.  Mary's  Seminary  had  measurably  progressed.  Its 
spirit  was  excellent,  as  is  shown  by  the  subsequent  career 
of  the  seminarians.  It  numbered  some  twelve  or  fifteen 
students  at  this  time.  To  M.  Carriere  this  appeared  a 
small  number  as  compared  with  the  French  seminaries, 
and  especially  because  the  education  of  seminary  students 
according  to  the  tradition  of  St.  Sulpice,  was  primarily 
the  only  work  of  the  Sulpicians. 

If  he  now  looked  at  the  other  Sulpician  institution  in 
Baltimore  the  visitor  could  not  fail  to  be  pleased  with  its 
prosperity.  St.  Mary's  College  numbered  some  two  hun- 
dred students  whose  work  was  entirely  satisfactory  to  its 
patrons.  Unquestionably  the  nine  members  of  St.  Sulpice 
who  directed  the  institution  were  accomplishing  a  useful 
and  much  appreciated  task.  But  to  M.  Carriere,  who  saw 
with  the  eyes  of  MM.  Olier  and  Emery,  this  work,  though 
excellent,  was  not  the  true  work  of  St.  Sulpice.  In  1826 
the  Society  gave  up  the  Mountain  college,  because  it  con- 
tinued to  teach  theology.  This  action  logically  constrained 
them  to  surrender  the  college  at  Baltimore,  and  this  with 
all  the  more  reason,  since  the  latter  diverted  the  energies 
of  a  larger  number  of  members  from  their  primary  work. 

But  it  may  be  questioned  whether  the  dictates  of  logic 
were  the  dictates  of  common  sense.  To  abandon  the  col- 
lege was  to  leave  the  seminary  without  a  feeder  and  was 
therefore  to  condemn  it  to  death.  M.  Carriere  saw  that 
inasmuch  as  the  solemn  contract  with  the  Legislature  of 
the  State  bound  them  to  maintain  the  college  for  at  least 
thirty  years,  that  is  to  say,  for  eight  years  longer,  it  could 
not  be  given  up  immediately,  while  at  the  same  time  there 
must  be  no  delay  in  restoring  St.  Sulpice  to  its  ideal 
purity.  St.  Mary's  College  was  a  necessary  evil  for  some 


VERY  RKV.  Louis  Rfiois  DEI,I:O!.. 
Third  Superior  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         197 

ten  years  longer,  but  meantime,  the  preliminary  steps 
might  be  taken  to  establish  a  genuine  lower  seminary  after 
the  ideal  of  St.  Sulpice.  Moreover,  the  parish  work  of  the 
Fathers  and  their  spiritual  direction  of  other  religious 
communities  must  be  gradually  given  up,  and  the  weeds 
which  had  crept  into  the  Sulpician  garden  must  be  rooted 
out.  After  carefully  examining  the  prospects  and  the 
possibilities  of  the  Sulpician  work  in  the  United  States, 
M.  Carriere  looked  for  the  man  best  suited  to  carry  out 
the  reforms  and  improvements  which  he  had  in  mind. 
His  choice  fell  upon  M.  Deluol,  the  oldest  of  the  French 
Sulpicians  and  the  principal  professor  of  theology  in  the 
seminary. 

Louis  Eegis  Deluol,  a  native  of  St.  Privat,  near  Aube- 
nas,  Vivarais,  was  born  on  June  16,  1787.  During  the 
French  Revolution  his  parents  concealed  a  priest,  the  Rev- 
erend M.  Bernard,  in  their  house  for  a  year  and  a  half, 
during  which  time  young  Deluol  daily  served  his  Mass, 
an  experience  which  made  a  profound  impression  on  the 
boy.  Having  made  his  collegiate  studies  at  the  College 
of  Aubenas,  he  entered  the  seminary  of  Viviers  (1807), 
which  was  in  charge  of  the  Snlpicians.  Before  being  or- 
dained he  was  appointed  professor  of  philosophy,  which  he 
taught  while  awaiting  Napoleon's  permission  to  take  Holy 
Orders.  This  arrived  in  1811.  He  was  raised  to  the 
priesthood  on  December  21st  of  this  year,  shortly  after 
the  suppression  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  by  Napo- 
leon's order.  The  following  years  were  a  troublesome  time 
for  the  French  seminaries,  owing  to  the  political  disturb- 
ances, during  which  M.  Deluol  gave  proof  of  his  fear- 
lessness and  firmness  against  unjust  interference.  After 
the  re-establishment  of  the  Sulpicians  under  Louis  XVllI, 
M.  Deluol  became  a  member  of  the  Company  and  entered 
the  novitiate  at  Issy  on  October  26,  1816.  The  following 


198  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

year  he  set  sail  for  the  United  States  and  reached  Balti- 
more on  the  24th  of  October. 

He  had  hardly  time  to  settle  down  in  the  seminary  when 
he  began  his  classes  of  theology  on  November  12th,  lec- 
turing to  ten  students.  Henceforth  he  was  a  very  busy 
man,  teaching  theology  and  philosophy,  and  from  October 
7,  1819,  was  also  business  manager  of  the  seminary.  He 
proved  himself  a  skillful  man  of  affairs.  Energetic  and 
practical,  he  gained  the  confidence  of  his  superiors  and 
confreres,  and  was  of  much  service  in  straightening  out 
the  financial  troubles  between  the  seminary  and  the  Em- 
mitsburg  college.  Combining  great  charm  of  manner  with 
sound  judgment,  he  was  loved  and  respected  by  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact.  Many  years  after  his  return 
to  France  streams  of  American  friends  came  to  see  him 
at  St.  Sulpice,  to  consult  him  on  matters  of  importance 
or  to  show  him  that  time  had  not  been  able  to  extinguish 
the  affection  which  they  had  conceived  for  him  in  the 
United  States.  Finally,  he  was  a  man  of  unusual  learn- 
ing, well  versed  in  both  philosophy  and  theology  and  a 
Hebrew  scholar  of  note. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  M.  Carriere  felt  convinced  that 
M.  Deluol  was  the  very  man  to  smooth  over  difficulties 
and  to  realize  the  plans  on  which  he  and  the  superiors 
of  the  Society  laid  so  much  weight.  At  the  meeting  at 
which  M.  Deluol  was  named  superior  by  M.  Carriere,  he 
gave  expression  to  the  most  kindly  sentiments  for  all  and 
promised  in  every  way  to  promote  harmony  in  the  Com- 
pany. In  accordance  with  the  visitor's  views  he  resigned 
his  position  as  confidential  counselor  of  Mother  Seton's 
nuns,  who  were  then  known  as  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph, 
naming  Father  Hickey  to  fill  his  place.  As  regards  the 
substitution  of  a  real  lower  seminary  for  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege, the  new  superior  forthwith  set  to  work  to  realize  the 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         199 

schemes  of  the  visitors  and  M.  Gamier,  and  circumstances 
greatly  favored  his  initiative. 

In  the  year  1801,  when  the  Federalist  party  retired 
from  power,  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton  withdrew  from 
political  life.     The  leisure  time  which  was  now  at  his 
disposal  he  devoted  to  literature  and  philosophy  and  es- 
pecially to  religion.    He  dwelt  at  his  Manor  of  Doughore- 
gan.    Even  as  early  as  1799,  the  gentlemen  of  St  Sulpice 
became,  so  to  say,  the  chaplains  of  the  Carroll  house,  say- 
ing Mass  there  at  least  one  Sunday  in  each  month.  Among 
the  chaplains  who  successively  officiated  at  the  Carroll 
manor  were  MM.  Gamier,  Flaget,  David,  Dubourg  and 
Marechal.     These  gentlemen,  especially  the  last,  became 
the  intimate  friends  of  the  old  statesman.     Archbishop 
Marechal  continued  his  friendship  after  his  elevation  to 
the  see  of  Baltimore  and  Mr.  Carroll  had  an  open  ear  for 
his  suggestions. 

As  a  former  confrere,  the  archbishop  was  naturally  a 
warm  friend  of  the  Sulpician  Company  and  strove  by 
every  means  to  further  its  interests,  which  he  considered 
the  interests  of  the  diocese.     What  was  needed  by  the 
diocese  and  his  former  confreres,  he  thought,  was  a  lower 
seminary,  and  Mr.  Carroll  seemed  to  him  the  man  to  pro- 
vide it.     As  the  archbishop  felt  his  end  approaching  he 
was  unable  to  visit  Doughoregan  Manor  as  often  as  be- 
fore, but  he  found  an  ally  and  advocate  of  the  preparatory 
seminary  in  Miss  Caton,  later  Mrs.  Mactavish,  the  be- 
loved granddaughter  of  the  old  statesman.     To  her  the 
archbishop  trusted  the  cause  that  he  had  so  much  at 
heart.     Toward  the  middle  of  1828,  half  a  year  after 
Monseigneur  Marechal's  death,  the  plans  took  definite 
shape  and  she  proposed  to  her  grandfather  to  give  the  dio- 
cese a  part  of  the  Doughoregan  Manor.    But  to  this  Mr. 
Carroll,  who  felt  that  it  was  his  duty  to  keep  the  hereditary 
estates  of  the  family  intact,  strongly  objected,  and  Miss 


200  THE    SUI/PICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Caton  did  not  urge  the  point  After  the  Archbishop's 
death,  the  friendship  between  the  signer  and  the  Sulpi- 
cians  continued  as  before.  M.  Tessier  and  M.  Deluol  and 
other  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  were  not  unfrequent  visit- 
ors at  Doughoregan  Manor.  In  fact,  according  to  M. 
Deluol' s  diary,  when  the  visitor  sent  by  M.  Gamier  came 
to  Baltimore,  one  of  the  first  visits  he  paid  in  company 
with  MM.  Tessier,  Eccleston  and  Deluol,  was  to  the  old 
signer,  by  whom  they  were  received  with  the  utmost  kind- 
ness and  courtesy. 

Nevertheless,  Miss  Caton  did  not  forget  her  promise  to 
Archbishop  Marechal.  In  the  fall  of  1829  she  proposed 
that  her  grandfather  devote  a  different  plot  of  ground  situ- 
ated near  Doughoregan  Manor,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
road  to  Frederick,  to  the  same  purpose.  "Oh,  yes,"  said 
Mr.  Carroll,  "that  plot  does  not  come  to  me  from  my 
forefathers;  I  bought  it  myself;  I  can  therefore  give  it 
away  without  impairing  the  Manor.  Besides,  I  noticed 
that  in  the  old  deeds  it  is  called  'Marye's  Plot.'  Well, 
since  it  bears  that  name,  I  can  give  it  to  the  Church  for 
the  purpose  you  suggest."  *  So  he  had  the  plans  drawn 
immediately  and  on  January  21,  1830,  he  sent  them  to  the 
directors  of  St.  Mary's,  asking  whether  they  were  suitable 
for  a  preparatory  seminary  such  as  they  thought  of  estab- 
lishing. Mr.  Carroll  next  asked  the  Legislature  of  Mary- 
land for  a  charter  for  the  proposed  college,  which  was 
granted  readily  on  February  3,  1830,  and  on  the  following 
day  he  sent  a  copy  to  the  Sulpicians.  This  gave  to  the  five 
trustees  named  in  the  charter,  to  wit,  MM.  Deluol, 
Chanche,  Elder,  Tessier  and  Eccleston,  the  property  in 
question  and  authorized  them  to  acquire  new  property, 
fixing  the  maximum  income  at  six  thousand  dollars.  The 
purpose  for  which  this  property  was  to  be  held  was  the 
education  of  young  Catholics  preparing  for  the  priesthood. 

1  Gosselin,  op.  cit.,  vol.  li,  p.  39. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         201 

On  the  death  of  any  of  the  trustees  the  remainder  were  to 
fill  the  vacancy  by  electing  a  Catholic  clergyman  who  was 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  On  March  27th  Mr.  Car- 
roll drew  up  the  deed  of  trust  and  sent  it  to  M.  Deluol, 
along  with  fifty  shares  of  the  United  States  Bank  for 
the  construction  of  the  buildings.  To  this  sum,  M.  Adol- 
phus  Williamson  added  $3,000,  to  provide  cut  granite  for 
the  facade,  and  the  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda  at 
Eome  donated  500  crowns. 

The  corner-stone  was  laid  in  1831  by  Archbishop  Whit- 
field,  in  the  presence  of  the  venerable  Charles  Carroll 
and  of  a  great  crowd  of  interested  Catholics.  M.  Deluol, 
as  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  did  his  best  to  push 
forward  the  work  of  erection.  According  to  his  diary, 
while  the  building  was  in  course  of  erection  he  made  fre- 
quent visits  of  inspection  to  St.  Charles'  College,  and  on 
one  of  these,  which  took  place  October  12,  1831,  he  dined 
with  Mr.  Carroll.  He  observes  that  the  latter  was  full 
of  humor  and  quick  witted,  though  at  the  time  ninety- 
four  years  of  age.1 

M.  Carriere  returned  to  Europe  October  20,  1829.  Of 
course,  he  reported  the  good  news  of  Mr.  Carroll's  dona- 
tion. In  accordance  with  the  request  of  the  Baltimore 
brethren  he  hastened  to  send  over  two  more  members  of 
the  Sulpician  Company,  MM.  Verot  and  Fr£det,  to 
strengthen  the  Society  in  the  United  States. 

But  all  the  zeal  of  M.  Deluol  and  all  the  good  will  of 
the  French  Sulpicians  failed  to  achieve  the  end  they  so 

1  Mr  Carroll  was  not  fated  to  see  bis  college  finished.  M.  Delaol  in  his 
diary  elves  us  an  account  of  his  death  which  shows  how  close  the  rela- 
tions of  the  signer  to  the  Sulplclans  were  to  the  end.  We  quote  from  the 

"Nov.  7th.    M.  Chanche  gave  the  last  rites  of  the  Church  to  Cmrroll,  the 


'A>?  Uth  Mr.  Carroll  died  at  4  A.  M.  In  the  arms  of  Mrs.  Mnrt.ivlnh. 
in  the  presence  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Caton.  also  of  M.  Chanche,  who  gave  him 
the  plenary  indulgence  in  articulo  mortto. 

"Nov  nth.  Remains  of  Carroll  transferred  to  the  Manor.  The  GOTCT- 
nor  of  Maryland  used  his  fist  to  quiet  a  man  who  was  under  the  Influence 
Sf  liquor  ^You  can  rule  both  with  your  head  and  with  your  fist/  said  I  to 
the  Governor." 


202  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

ardently  desired.  The  outside  of  St.  Charles'  College  was 
indeed  finished,  but  the  interior  remained  uninhabitable, 
the  trustees  not  having  the  money  to  finish  it.  In  vain 
M.  Deluol  and  Archbishop  Eccleston  appealed  to  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith.  In  vain  the  prel- 
ate, as  he  tells  us,  went  from  door  to  door  to  collect  the 
needed  sum.  At  last  in  1840  the  prospect  seemed  to  im- 
prove, when  the  Reverend  M.  Piot,  pastor  of  Ellicott  City, 
offered  his  entire  savings,  $6,000,  for  the  completion  of 
the  preparatory  seminary,  on  condition  that  he  should  be 
supported  in  his  old  age.  But  the  sum  offered  only  suf- 
ficed to  pay  the  debts  and  to  make  a  few  improvements  in 
the  interior  of  the  house.  In  fact,  the  enterprise  lay  dor- 
mant until  1848,  when  it  was  again  set  in  motion. 

If  we  seek  for  the  causes  which  paralyzed  the  activity 
of  the  new  lower  seminary,  Archbishop  Eccleston  in  a  let- 
ter to  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  tells 
us  it  was  lack  of  funds  and  lack  of  the  "personnel"  to  con- 
duct the  new  institution.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the 
funds  required  were  not  only  for  the  completion  of  the 
building,  which  was  a  mere  trifle,  but  that  being  done,  it 
was  necessary  to  pay  for  the  maintenance  of  the  buildings 
as  well  as  for  the  teachers  and  the  maintenance  of  the  stu- 
dents. Experience  has  taught  us  that  it  is  much  easier 
to  build  a  parochial  school  than  to  maintain  it.  We  must 
remember  that  the  number  of  Catholics  in  the  archdio- 
cese of  Baltimore,  as  well  as  in  its  suffragan  dioceses,  was 
comparatively  much  smaller  before  the  great  immigration 
of  1846  set  in.  Indeed  many  of  the  suffragan  sees  cannot 
maintain  a  seminary  at  the  present  day,  not  to  say  a 
seminary  and  a  lower  seminary. 

Archbishop  Eccleston's  statement  that  the  opening  of 
St.  Charles'  was  delayed  for  want  of  the  needed  "person- 
nel," may  refer  both  to  the  students  and  to  the  professors. 
The  Sulpicians  could  not  supply  the  number  of  teachers 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         203 

needed  to  furnish  the  faculties  of  both  St.  Mary's  and  St. 
Charles'  colleges,  especially  as  one  of  the  purposes  of  cre- 
ating St.  Charles'  was  to  put  an  end  to  the  system  of  em- 
ploying seminarians  as  subordinate  instructors  in  the 
colleges.  The  immediate  suppression  of  St.  Mary's  was 
out  of  the  question,  since  it  was  impossible  to  pay  the  fine 
which  M.  Dubourg,  in  the  name  of  the  Company,  had 
agreed  to  pay,  if  the  college  were  given  up  in  less  than 
thirty  years  after  its  chartering.  Moreover,  it  would  be 
a  great  injury  to  the  students  and  their  parents  to  wipe 
St.  Mary's  College  out  of  existence  without  providing  a 
place  where  the  young  men  might  continue  their  studies, 
and  such  a  place  was  not  in  prospect  before  the  foundation 
of  Loyola  College  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers. 

Hence,  the  personnel  of  which  Archbishop  Eccleston 
spoke  probably  referred  to  the  students  as  well  as  to  the 
instructors.  A  few  years  before  the  opening  of  St 
Charles'  the  great  immigration  due  to  the  Irish  famine 
began.  This  increased  the  Catholic  population,  as  well  as 
the  need  of  priests  on  the  one  side  and  the  candidates  for 
the  priesthood  on  the  other.  It  is  plain,  therefore,  that 
the  conditions  for  the  success  of  St.  Charles'  College  had 
considerably  improved  between  1832  and  1848.  We  need 
not  be  surprised,  therefore,  that  M.  Deluol  could  not 
achieve  in  that  year  what  was  accomplished  by  Father 
Jenkins  sixteen  years  later. 

In  the  seminary,  however,  M.  Deluol  proved  himself 
an  energetic  superior  and  a  vigorous  man  of  progress.  In- 
deed he  showed  himself  to  be  the  very  man  for  the  posi- 
tion. He  was  a  splendid  executive  and  represented  the 
university  before  the  Church  and  the  country  most  ac- 
ceptably. Of  his  executive  ability  from  the  financial  point 
of  view  he  had  given  proofs  for  more  than  ten  years.  His 
learning  as  a  theologian,  a  philosopher  and  a  linguist,  se- 
cured for  him  the  respect  of  the  most  distinguished  men 


204  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

in  Church  and  State.  He  enjoyed  the  entire  confidence  of 
Archbishop  Whitfield  and  was  the  intimate  friend  of 
Archbishop  Eccleston.  In  fact,  he  followed  the  old  Sul- 
pician  tradition  of  standing  well  with  his  episcopal  su- 
periors. To  Archbishop  Eccleston  he  was  attached  by 
special  bonds  of  friendship,  for  in  1843  he  accompanied 
that  prelate  on  his  long  visit  to  the  West.  In  1844  he 
conducted  the  funeral  rites  for  Mrs.  Stenson,  the  Arch- 
bishop's mother,  and  by  his  will  Archbishop  Eccleston 
appointed  his  long  and  faithful  Sulpician  friend  one  of 
the  executors  of  his  last  testament. 

With  the  other  members  of  the  American  hierarchy 
he  was  on  equally  confidential  terms.  When  Bishop  Du- 
bois  was  called  to  rest  in  1842,  M.  Deluol  was  one  of  the 
first  churchmen  to  whom  Bishop  Hughes  wrote  the  intel- 
ligence, and  when  differences  of  opinion  arose  concerning 
the  Sisters  of  Charity  in  New  York  the  matter  was  ulti- 
mately settled  between  the  bishop  and  M.  Deluol.  In 
1844  Bishop  Kenrick  of  Philadelphia  fled  from  his  epis- 
copal city,  under  the  threats  of  the  Native  American  move- 
ment which  had  laid  some  of  the  Philadelphia  churches  in 
ashes.  He  took  refuge  with  M.  Deluol  at  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary and  was  received  with  open  arms.  Among  other 
bishops  whom  the  hospitality  and  fame  of  the  president 
drew  to  St.  Mary's  were  Bishop  Fenwick  of  Boston,  his 
colleague  as  promoter  of  the  first  Council  of  Baltimore, 
the  Canadian,  Bishop  Charbonnel,  and  the  future  Bishop 
of  Charleston,  Dr.  Lynch.  He  was  also  on  terms  of  friend- 
ship with  Dr.  Purcell  of  Cincinnati,  Dr.  Whelan  of  Rich- 
mond, and  Dr.  Timon  of  Buffalo.  Before  Bishop  Barren 
went  to  start  the  American  mission  in  Liberia,  he,  as  well 
as  Father  Kelly,  was  the  guest  of  M.  Deluol,  and  Father 
De  Smet  received  the  privilege  of  holding  a  collection  for 
his  Indian  missions  at  St.  Mary's. 

We  find  M.  Deluol  equally  respected  and  honored  by  the 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         205 

most  celebrated  statesmen  and  scholars  of  his  day.  His 
friend,  General  George  Stewart,  introduced  him  to  the 
greatest  contemporary  American  man  of  letters,  Washing- 
ton Irving,  and  Mr.  J.  P.  Kennedy  to  the  greatest  orator, 
Daniel  Webster.  In  1841,  Napoleon's  adjutant-general, 
Bertrand,  who  had  accompanied  the  emperor  to  Elba  and 
St.  Helena,  paid  a  visit  to  St.  Mary's. 

The  French  scientist,  Nicollet,  who  spent  several  years 
in  this  country  on  a  mission  from  his  government,  often 
advised  M.  Deluol  as  to  the  best  means  of  improving  the 
scientific  course  in  his  institutions,  and  when  he  was  in 
his  last  illness,  the  president  of  St.  Mary's  offered  him  the 
consolations  of  religion.  Professor  James  Hall,  the  emi- 
nent New  York  geologist,  visited  M.  Deluol  just  before 
his  conversion  in  1837.  These  names,  probably  only 
a  few  of  many  equally  distinguished  visitors,  we  have 
culled  from  M.  Deluol's  diary,  but  they  are  sufficient  to 
prove  the  wide  range  of  his  influence  in  the  Church,  in 
scientific  and  in  social  circles. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  president  of  St.  Mary's 
Seminary  neglected  his  immediate  duties  in  order  to  ex- 
tend his  personal  influence.  The  picture  drawn  by  his 
diary  in  his  relation  to  the  students  of  the  seminary  is 
uncommonly  attractive.  In  the  house,  he  was  full  of 
sympathy  with  the  seminarians,  loved  to  exchange  a  joke 
with  them,  and  did  not  disdain  an  occasional  use  of  slang. 
He  accompanied  the  seminarians  on  their  weekly  tramp, 
and  when  a  festival  or  some  special  occasion  took  them  to 
a  picnic,  he  was  frequently  with  them.  Though  not  born 
in  the  United  States,  M.  Deluol  was  a  staunch  American. 
Year  after  year,  we  find  that  he  took  his  students  and  fac- 
ulty out  to  some  country  place  to  celebrate  Independence 
Day,  not  only  looking  after  the  feast  of  reason  and  the 
flow  of  soul,  but  also  providing  for  their  bodily  comfort. 
Two  of  the  places  which  are  especially  mentioned  by  him 


206  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

as  scenes  of  their  holiday  sports  are  Gable's  Fountain, 
and  Cromwells',  and  it  cheers  one's  heart,  even  seventy 
years  later,  to  see  how  well  he  provided  for  his  seminari- 
ans. On  July  4,  1839,  he  took  his  company,  consisting 
of  six  priests  and  nine  seminarians,  out  to  Gable's  Foun- 
tain. To  supply  their  corporal  wants,  seven  loaves  of 
bread,  ten  chickens  and  half  a  ham  were  provided.  When 
Pigeon  Hill  was  sold  by  the  college  authorities,  he  saw  to 
it  that  the  seminarians  found  a  new  place  for  summer 
excursions  at  St.  Charles'. 

During  the  early  part  of  his  regime,  the  archaeological 
researches  which  later  on  affected  the  curriculum  of  many 
seminaries  had  barely  begun,  and  even  church  history 
as  a  separate  branch  of  theological  study  was  but  slightly 
emphasized  in  them.  But  M.  Deluol  carefully  scanned 
the  progress  of  theological  learning  and  the  needs  of  his 
institution.  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore,  to  learn  that 
Hebrew  was  one  of  the  subjects  taught  in  the  Baltimore 
seminary,  M.  Deluol  himself,  who  was  a  well-versed  He- 
braist, delivering  the  lectures  on  this  subject.  M.  Fredet, 
whom  M.  Carriere  had  recently  sent  to  Baltimore,  was 
the  professor  of  church  history.  His  volumes  on  ancient 
and  modern  history  made  his  name  almost  a  household 
word  among  Catholic  American  college  students  during 
the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.1  The  students 
of  philosophy  in  the  seminary  were  not  forgotten.  M.  de 
Courson,  the  Sulpician  head  of  the  Mantes  seminary,  had 
expended  his  private  fortune  to  provide  a  course  in  science 
for  the  seminarians  2  of  Nantes  in  Brittany.  M.  Deluol 
instituted  a  similar  course  in  St.  Mary's  under  the  Sul- 
pician, M.  Verot,  who  taught  here  for  many  years  with 

1  Besides  these  histories,  M.  Fre"det  published  the  following  works :    "In- 
spiration and  Canon  of  Scripture,"  "Original  Texts  and  Translations  of 
the  Bible,"  "Interpretation  of  Scripture,"  "Necessity  of  Baptism,"  "Effects 
of  Baptism  and  the  Obligation  Attached  to  It,"  "Lay  Baptism  and  Doc- 
trine of  Exclusive  Salvation,"  "A  Treatise  on  the  Eucharistic  Mystery." 

2  See  Thfibaud,  "Three  Quarters  of  a  Century,"  In  "Records  and  Stud- 
ies," vol.  1,  p.  204  sqq.  ;  and  p.  209  sqq. 


CHARLES  CARROLL, 
of  Carrollton. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         207 

much  distinction,  until  he  was  appointed  Vicar  Apostolic 
of  Florida  in  1858.  M.  Verot  soon  became  a  correspond- 
ent of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  a  friend  of  Pro- 
fessor Henry.  With  M.  Nicollet,  of  the  French  Bureau 
of  Longitude,  who  came  to  the  United  States  in  1832  and 
represented  his  department  until  his  death  in  1843,  M. 
.Verot  cultivated  social  and  scientific  relations.  The  col- 
lege in  consequence  procured  a  transit,  refracting  and 
reflecting  telescope  and  other  scientific  instruments.  In 
1842  by  the  advice  of  M.  Nicollet,  a  magnetic  observatory- 
was  erected  on  the  seminary  grounds. 

The  courses  in  theology  continued  to  be  given  witK 
much  distinction  and  the  reputation  of  the  seminary  in- 
creased from  year  to  year.  The  number  of  students  did 
not  greatly  increase  during  M.  Deluol's  administration, 
but  their  quality,  as  shown  by  their  subsequent  careers, 
entitles  them  to  the  greatest  credit.  Of  the  thirty-six 
priests  ordained  during  this  period  five  were  raised  to 
the  episcopate,  viz.:  Bishop  McGill,  of  Richmond  (1850^ 
72)  ;  Bishop  Loughlin,  of  Brooklyn  (1853-91) ;  Bishop 
Bacon,  of  Portland,  Me.  (1855-74) ;  Bishop  Foley,  of  Chi- 
cago (1870-79),  and  Bishop  Edgar  P.  Wadhams,  first 
Bishop  of  Ogdensburg.  Bishop  McGill  was  a  publicist  of 
note.  At  Louisville  he  edited  the  "Catholic  Advocate," 
in  which  he  wrote  a  series  of  controversial  articles  which 
produced  a  great  impression.  His  other  works  were: 
"The  True  Church,"  "Faith  the  Victory,"  a  criticism  of 
Macaulay's  "History  of  England"  and  a  translation  of 
Audin's  "Life  of  John  Calvin."  In  1840  Reverend  John 
B.  Gildea  was  chosen  president  of  the  Catholic  Tract  So- 
ciety of  Baltimore,  a  society  founded  to  throw  light  upon 
Catholic  doctrine  and  history. 

Prominent  among  the  publicists  sent  forth  from  St 
Mary's  Seminary  during  M.  Deluol's  administration  was 
the  Reverend  Charles  I.  White,  who  was  ordained  in 


208  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

1830,  having  graduated  from  St.  Mary's  College  in  1823. 
Between  1843  and  1845  he  again  resided  at  St.  Mary's, 
where  he  taught,  and  two  years  later  made  the  seminary 
his  home  while  preparing  his  examination  for  the  degree 
of  D.D.,  which  was  awarded  to  him  by  the  faculty  of  the 
seminary.  For  twenty-three  years,  i.e.,  from  1834  to 
1857,  he  was  the  editor  of  the  "Catholic  Almanac."  In 
1842  he  founded  and  edited  the  "Keligious  Cabinet," 
which,  however,  lived  for  one  year  only.  It  was  replaced 
in  1843  by  the  "United  States  Catholic  Magazine"  which 
to  this  day  is  one  of  the  most  important  sources  of  Cath- 
olic contemporary  history.  On  its  demise  in  1849 
it  was  replaced  by  the  "Catholic  Mirror,"  a  weekly  jour- 
nal which  lasted  until  1908.  In  1853  Father  White  pub- 
lished a  Life  of  Mother  Seton.  He  rendered  a  great  serv- 
ice to  the  Catholic  cause  by  translating  Balmes'  famous 
work  entitled  "Protestantism  and  Catholicism  Compared 
in  Their  Effects  on  the  Civilization  of  Europe"  (New 
York,  1850),  which  was  followed  by  a  translation  of 
Chateaubriand's  "Genius  of  Christianity"  (1856).  In 
1857  he  became  pastor  of  St.  Matthew's  Church  in  Wash- 
ington, a  place  which  he  filled  with  distinction  until  his 
death  in  1877. 

Dr.  John  H.  McCaffrey,  for  forty-four  years  president 
of  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg,  was  an  orator 
of  mark,  whose  funeral  orations  on  Bishops  Dubois  and 
Brute  are  spoken  of  as  models  of  this  kind  of  eloquence. 
His  published  works  include  a  series  of  lectures  delivered 
before  the  Philomathean  Society  of  Emmitsburg,  and 
before  the  Catholic  Association  of  Baltimore,  as  well  as  a 
series  of  catechisms. 

The  Reverend  Edward  Knight  and  the  Reverend  John 
Hoskins,  who  were  ordained  respectively  in  1830  and 
1832,  joined  the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice  and  became 
prominent  professors  at  St.  Mary's  College.  The  Very 


ADMINISTRATION   OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         209 

Reverend  Henry  Coskery,  who  was  vicar-general  under  two 
Archbishops  of  Baltimore  and  refused  the  see  of  Portland, 
Maine,  was  a  classmate  of  Father  Starrs,  whom  all  New 
Yorkers  of  the  middle  of  the  last  century  will  remember  as 
the  vicar-general  of  Archbishop  Hughes. 

A  scholar  will  appreciate  at  once  the  value  of  the 
donation  received  by  St.  Mary's  Seminary  in  1845,  when 
Mr.  Adolphus  Williamson  bequeathed  his  valuable  library 
to  the  Seminary.  This  was  the  same  Williamson  who  had 
already  earned  the  gratitude  of  the  Sulpicians  by  his 
contribution  to  St.  Charles'  College. 

However,  the  government  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  did 
not  by  any  means  exhaust  the  activity  of  M.  Deluol. 
Though  he  turned  over  the  directorship  of  the  Sisters 
of  St.  Joseph  to  Father  Hickey,  the  protectorship  of  the 
Sisterhood  officially  remained  with  him  as  the  Superior 
of  the  American  Sulpicians,  the  details  of  his  administra- 
tion being  given  in  Chapter  IX. 

During  the  administration  of  M.  Deluol,  from  1829 
to  1849,  the  first  seven  Provincial  Councils  of  Baltimore 
were  assembled.  In  all  of  these  the  Sulpician  Fathers, 
and  especially  Father  Deluol,  took  part,  which  entailed  no 
little  work  on  their  part.  M.  Deluol  was  the  theologian 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  at  all  of  the  Councils  and 
played  an  important  role  in  their  transactions.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  find  that  even  in  1833,  the  Council  discussed 
the  foundation  of  a  national  seminary  which,  in  a  way, 
found  its  realization  in  the  Washington  Catholic  Uni- 
versity. In  1843,  he  was  a  member  of  the  committee  to 
which  the  difficult  question  of  church  property  was  en- 
trusted. In  1846  and  1849,  the  Council  discussed  the 
question  of  defining  the  Immaculate  Conception  as  an 
article  of  faith,  and  on  both  occasions  M.  Deluol  read  a 
report  on  the  subject,  being  evidently  considered  espe- 
cially fitted  to  give  his  advice  on  this  important  matter. 


210  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

On  other  occasions,  we  find  him  discussing  the  questions  of 
clandestine  marriages  and  of  the  illicit  character  of  such 
societies  as  the  Odd  Fellows  and  the  Sons  of  Temperance. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  preparation  of  such  important  and 
difficult  subjects  must  have  required  much  learning  and 
considerable  time. 

In  the  year  1847  the  name  of  one  of  the  Sulpicians  ap- 
pears in  the  Maryland  law  courts  in  connection  with  a  case 
which  contributed  to  settle  a  most  important  point  con- 
cerning religious  liberty  in  the  United  States.  M.  Hickey, 
one  of  the  veteran  professors  of  St.  Sulpice,  was  cited 
before  the  court  to  testify  before  a  jury  concerning  a  sum 
of  $14,000  restitution  money  received  by  him  in  con- 
fession. The  learned  professor  declined,  like  Father  Kohl- 
mann  in  New  York,  to  violate  religious  liberty  by  violat- 
ing the  secret  of  the  confessional. 

On  March  16,  1845,  M.  Gamier,  the  superior-general 
of  the  Sulpicians,  departed  this  life  after  filling  that 
high  office  for  nineteen  years.  He  had  been  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  the  little  colony,  sent  by  his  Company  to  Balti- 
more in  1791.  After  his  return  to  France  in  1803,  he 
had  continued  to  take  the  liveliest  interest  in  his  American 
brethren  and  their  fortunes,  and  he  had  been  especially 
urgent  with  his  brethren  at  Baltimore  to  give  up  all  em- 
ployments not  strictly  connected  with  clerical  education, 
and  with  that  purpose  in  view  had  sent  M.  Carriere  to  the 
United  States  in  1829.  At  that  time,  however,  many  in- 
superable obstacles  had  prevented  the  Sulpicians  from 
surrendering  their  parochial  work  connected  with  the 
seminary  and  their  patronage  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph, 
Emmitsburg,  as  well  as  from  giving  up  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege. Matters  remained  in  this  condition  during  the  life- 
time of  M.  Gamier. 

After  his  death,  M.  de  Courson,  the  superior  of  the 
Sulpician  house  at  Issy,  was  chosen  his  successor.  The 


ADMINISTRATION    OP    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849          211 

new  superior  determined  to  take  immediate  steps  to 
harmonize  the  American  houses  of  the  Company  with 
those  of  France.  This  determination  of  M.  de  Courson 
imposed  many  sacrifices  and  many  changes  on  the  Ameri- 
can Sulpicians.  It  required  them  to  give  up  duties  and 
relations  which  had  become  endeared  to  them  and  to  the 
persons  concerned:  to  cut  the  ties  which  bound  them  to 
the  Sisters  at  Emmitsburg,  to  sever  their  connection  with 
the  numerous  French  and  English  congregations  that  loved 
to  worship  at  the  seminary,  above  all,  to  give  up  St.  Mary's 
College,  which  had  become  a  flourishing  institution  and 
one  which  through  its  alumni  was  influential  in  the  civil 
affairs  of  Baltimore  and  Maryland.  The  American  Sul- 
picians, as  it  might  be  supposed,  deeply  felt  these  sacri- 
fices, though  some  of  them  had  been  foreseen  many  years 
before.  Above  all,  their  superior,  M.  Deluol,  must  have 
felt  the  sacrifice,  yet  it  was  he  who  worked  with  his  usual 
zeal  and  prudence  to  place  the  supervision  of  the  Sisters 
of  Charity  in  the  hands  of  the  Lazarists.  It  was  he  who, 
next  to  Archbishop  Marechal,  had  labored  most  for  the 
creation  of  St.  Charles'.  It  was  he  who,  in  1837,  imme- 
diately after  the  expiration  of  the  period  during  which 
the  Sulpicians,  according  to  their  pact  with  the  Maryland 
Legislature,  were  obliged  to  maintain  St.  Mary's  College, 
entered  into  negotiations  with  the  Jesuit  superiors  for 
the  sale  of  the  college,  which  negotiations,  it  is  true,  came 
to  nothing. 

In  1848  his  opinion  on  the  prospects  of  St.  Charles'  and 
the  advisability  of  transferring  St.  Mary's  College  seem 
to  have  undergone  a  change.  He  expressed  grave  doubts 
as  to  the  success  of  St.  Charles',  as  a  prudent  man 
might  very  well  have  done.  The  great  Irish  immigration 
was  of  but  very  recent  date  and  had  touched  Baltimore 
to  only  a  slight  extent.  Though  M.  Deluol  himself  had, 
through  his  relations  with  the  New  England  bishops  and 


212  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  Sisters  of  Charity,  paved  the  way  for  the  extraordinary 
help  which  New  England  gave  to  the  success  and  pros- 
perity of  St.  Charles',  more  than  a  prophet's  eye  was  re- 
quired to  foresee  this  in  1848.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Baltimore  superior  was  mistaken,  being  but  human,  but 
he  was  not  obstinate.  On  September  26,  1848,  he  records 
in  his  diary:  "The  Archbishop  calls  and  is  determined 
to  open  St.  Charles'  College;  I  do  not  believe  in  the 
success  of  the  enterprise  but  since  the  Archbishop  wants 
it,  it  shall  be  done."  M.  Deluol  had  therefore  approved 
of  Father  Jenkins'  appointment  to  the  presidency  of  St. 
Charles'  before  the  Archbishop  informed  the  latter  of 
it  on  September  29th.  At  all  events  after  the  26th  of 
September  the  Baltimore  superior  is  found  acting  wholly 
in  sympathy  with  the  archbishop.1  This  appears  from 
another  entry  in  his  diary,  dated  October  30th:  "The 
Archbishop,  his  two  acolytes,  Coskery  and  Hickey,  dined 
here  with  M.  Raymond  and  0.  L.  Jenkins.  The  dinner 
is  given  in  honor  of  the  latter,  who  is  to  start  to-morrow 
to  open  St.  Charles'  College."  We  shall  speak  of  the 
success  of  St.  Charles'  in  a  future  chapter. 

M.  Deluol's  activity  at  Baltimore  was  not  destined  to 
last  much  longer.  On  the  one  hand,  his  health  had,  under 
the  influence  of  age  and  trials,  shown  symptoms  of  weak- 
ening, and  on  the  other  hand,  M.  de  Courson  thought  it 
wise  to  write  the  American  superior  to  leave  the  scene  of 
his  thirty  years'  work.  He  was  thus  obliged  to  give  up 
his  occupations,  his  interests,  his  friends.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  a  severe  blow  for  the  old  gentleman,  but  he  did  not 

1  Some  remarks  of  M.  Faillon,  who  came  to  Baltimore  as  M.  de  Cour- 
son's  official  visitor,  on  April  21st  of  the  year  following,  have  been  inter- 
preted to  mean  that  Archbishop  Eccleston  was  offended  by  M.  Deluol's 
stand  on  the  question  of  opening  St.  Charles'.  But  the  archbishop  was 
not  the  man  to  take  offense  with  his  old  teacher  for  respectfully  express- 
ing his  opinion,  and  M.  Deluol's  submission  as  expressed  in  his  diary 
would  surely  satisfy  any  superior.  Moreover,  the  two  gentlemen  remained 
on  the  same  friendly  footing  as  before,  and  what  is  unquestionably  deci- 
sive, when  in  1851,  the  archbishop  died  at  Georgetown,  M.  Lhomme  tells 
us  in  his  diary,  under  date  of  May  12,  1851 :  "In  a  paper  found  to-day, 
the  late  archbishop  appointed  administrators :  first,  Deluol ;  second,  Ray- 
mond ;  third,  Coskery." 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    DELUOL,    1829-1849         213 

quail.     M.  Faillon  remained  in  Baltimore  five  months, 
when  he  started  for  Montreal. 

M.  Deluol  departed  for  Paris  December  7,  1849.  He 
did  not  leave  the  land  of  his  adoption  without  an  expres- 
sion from  his  many  friends  of  all  ranks,  clerical  and  lay, 
showing  the  esteem  in  which  they  held  him.  His  confreres, 
the  Emmitsburg  Sisters,  the  many  social  friends  who  had 
so  often  entertained  him  and  his  seminarians,  from  the 
Jenkinses  to  the  Crom wells,  crowded  round  to  bid  him 
an  affectionate  godspeed,  and  above  all  his  dear  sem- 
inarians, the  companions  of  his  walks  and  his  enjoyments, 
whether  in  the  house  or  on  holiday  celebrations,  the  ob- 
jects of  his  daily  prayers,  bade  him  a  most  affectionate 
and  sincere  farewell  and  wished  him  many  years  of  use- 
fulness in  the  land  of  his  birth.  They  did  not  stop  here. 
For  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  they  pursued  him 
with  letters  and  rejoiced  him  with  their  visits.  His  diary 
lovingly  records  the  number  of  American  letters,  reach- 
ing sometimes  as  many  as  twenty  in  a  month,  which 
showed  him  that  he  was  not  forgotten  in  the  land  for 
which  he  had  labored  with  heart  and  brain,  and  which 
followed  his  life  to  the  end. 

Among  the  friends  who  visited  him  at  Issy  or  at  Paris 
we  find  the  new  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  the  learned 
Archbishop  Kenrick,  accompanied  by  his  friend,  the  fu- 
ture Coadjutor  Bishop  of  Chicago,  Father  Foley.  In 
the  years  that  succeeded,  we  notice  among  his  visitors 
Archbishop  Hughes,  with  his  friend  Bishop  McNeirny  of 
Albany;  Bishop  de  Goesbriand  of  Burlington;  Arch- 
bishop Blanc  of  New  Orleans;  Bishop  Timon  of  Buffalo; 
Bishop  Amat  of  Monterey  and  the  saintly  Bishop  Neu- 
mann of  Philadelphia.  It  would  take  up  too  much  space 
to  record  all  the  priests  and  laymen  from  the  United 
States  who  paid  him  their  respects,  but  we  cannot  refrain 
from  mentioning  the  name  of  a  distinguished  Englishman 


214  THE    SULPICIANS   IN    THE    UNITED' STATES 

who  sought  his  advice  and  his  friendship  after  his  con- 
version. This  was  Mr.  Robert  Wilberforce,  the  partisan 
of  Pusey,  the  friend  of  Newman,  the  son  of  the  man  who 
abolished  the  African  slave-trade,  and  the  brother  of  the 
distinguished  and  eloquent  Bishop  of  Oxford  who  was 
known  as  "Soapy  Sam." 

But  M.  Deluol  was  not  the  man  to  spend  his  days  in 
receiving  the  homage  of  his  friends.  For  two  years  after 
his  return  to  France,  his  health  needed  much  attention 
and  care.  Then  he  resumed  the  life  of  the  disciple  of  M. 
Olier  and  became  professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  Paris  sem- 
inary. Here  his  ability  was  such  as  to  permit  him  to 
teach  Hebrew  together  with  M.  Le  Hir,  the  greatest  He- 
brew scholar  whom  the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice  has  pro- 
duced, and  the  man  to  whom  Ernest  Kenan  owed  his  He- 
brew scholarship.  Occupied  with  his  favorite  studies,  and 
planting  the  seeds  of  learning  in  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sul- 
pice, he  spent  in  useful  work  the  evening  of  the  life  which 
had  been  so  eminently  fruitful  to  two  continents.  One 
joyous  event  above  all  made  him  happy  during  the  latter 
days  of  his  life.  In  two  Councils  of  Baltimore,  he  had 
striven  with  might  and  main,  with  all  the  powers  of  his 
intellect  and  the  vigor  of  his  will,  to  move  the  American 
bishops  to  approach  the  Holy  See  with  the  petition  that 
the  Church  should  proclaim  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception.  In  1854,  he  saw  his  dearest  wish  gratified 
and  we  can  sympathize  with  the  triumphant  reception 
which  he  gave  to  this  glorious  news  in  his  diary. 

His  death,  like  his  life,  was  that  of  a  pious  Christian 
and  a  model  priest.    He  died  on  November  15,  1858. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  PROTEGEES  OF  THE  SULPICIAWS 

St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  the  founder  of  the  Lazarists,  had 
aided  the  Blessed  Louise  Le  Gras  to  found  the  Sisters  of 
Charity;  M.  Olier,  the  founder  of  the  Sulpicians,  had 
enabled  Jeanne  Mance  to  found  the  great  Hotel-Dieu  at 
Montreal;  and  the  Sulpicians  of  Baltimore  were  destined 
to  lend  a  helping  hand  in  the  establishment  of  two  con- 
gregations of  women  in  America,  the  Sisters  of  St  Jo- 
seph, which  name  was  changed  later  to  that  of  Sisters  of 
Charity  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  and  the  Oblate  Sisters 
of  Providence.  As  the  protection  which  they  gave  to 
these  charitable  societies  is  not  the  least  of  the  services 
which  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  has  rendered  to  the 
Catholic  Church  in  America,  a  history  of  the  Sulpicians 
in  the  United  States  which  omitted  an  account  of  these 
would  be  incomplete.  No  excuse  is  necessary,  therefore, 
if  we  lay  before  our  readers  the  details  of  this  story. 

THE  SISTERS  OF  CHARITY 

In  the  autumn  of  1807,  the  Sulpician,  Father  William 
Valentine  Dubourg,  at  that  time  president  of  the  newly 
founded  St  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  was  on  a  visit 
to  his  friend,  Father  Sibourd,  then  curate  at  St.  Peter's, 
"New  York.  While  giving  Holy  Communion  at  his  Mass, 
a  day  or  two  after  his  arrival,  he  was  greatly  struck  by  a 
lady  who  approached  the  Lord's  table  in  a  flood  of  tears. 
He  related  the  incident  to  his  friend,  M.  Sibourd,  who 

215 


216  THE    STJXPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

told  him  that  the  devout  lady  was  a  widow,  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
A.  Seton.  He  proceeded  to  give  the  Sulpician  an  ac- 
count of  the  young  woman  (Mrs.  Seton  was  thirty-two 
years  old  at  the  time),  and  was  speaking  of  her  in  terms  of 
the  warmest  admiration,  when  there  was  a  tap  at  the  door 
and  Mrs.  Seton  herself  was  ushered  in.  After  the  usual 
greetings,  M.  Dubourg,  who  was  a  remarkably  sympa- 
thetic man,  became  interested  in  the  widow's  story,  which 
we  shall  here  briefly  relate. 

Mrs.  Seton  was  born  in  1774,  of  Episcopalian  parents, 
her  father  being  Dr.  Richard  Bayley,  a  New  York  physi- 
cian of  eminence,  for  he  had  been  Health  Officer  of  the 
port.  She  lost  her  mother  when  she  was  only  three  years 
old.  The  father,  however,  who,  while  not  especially  in- 
terested in  religion,  was  deeply  conscious  of  his  duty  to 
his  little  orphans,  made  Elizabeth  the  companion  of  his 
life,  and  developed  in  her  feelings  of  the  warmest  affec- 
tion, which  grew  more  intense  as  the  years  rolled  by. 
Elizabeth,  who  had  been  born  a  year  before  the  out- 
break of  the  War  of  Independence,  partly  because  of  the 
turbulence  of  the  times  and  partly  because  the  New  York 
of  those  days  afforded  but  few  educational  advantages, 
grew  up  with  little  more  than  a  plain  English  training. 
She  was  naturally  bright  and  fond  of  reading  and  her 
father  fostered  this  taste.  She  read  serious  books  by  pref- 
erence, and  above  all  gave  much  time  to  the  reading  of 
the  Bible,  which  was  her  daily  companion.  He  developed 
her  natural  talents,  and  in  the  course  of  time  she  became 
a  thoughtful  girl,  whose  mind  naturally  expressed  itself 
in  striking  images,  and  who  took  pleasure  in  writing 
down  her  thoughts,  whether  in  letters  to  her  friends  or 
in  notes  for  private  use.  She  also  took  great  delight  in  the 
beauties  of  nature,  the  glories  of  the  heavens  and  the 
charms  of  animal  and  plant  life,  all  of  which  were  to  her 
an  expression  of  the  greatness  and  the  power  of  God. 


THE  PROTEGEES  OF  THE  8ULPICIAN8        217 

In  her  twentieth  year  she  was  married  to  Mr.  William 
Seton,  a  young  New  York  business  man,  son  of  a  gentle- 
man who  was  highly  respected  as  a  member  of  the  promi- 
nent firm  of  Seton  &  Maitland.  The  union  proved  a  very 
happy  one  and  was  soon  blessed  with  a  daughter,  Anna, 
and  later  with  four  more  children.  However,  after  the 
birth  of  the  second  child,  when  Mrs.  Seton  barely  escaped 
with  her  own  life,  her  husband  began  to  show  symptoms 
of  the  disease  of  which  he  died  ultimately.  Before  her 
marriage,  Elizabeth,  although  attentive  to  her  religious 
duties  and  showing  the  religious  sentiment  usual  among 
the  young  ladies  of  the  Episcopal  denomination,  gave  no 
signs  of  remarkable  piety.  Her  husband  and  his  family, 
except  her  eldest  sister-in-law,  Rebecca,  were  by  no  means 
unusually  devout.  On  the  other  hand,  the  deaths  of  her 
father-in-law  and  her  father  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
her  and  led  her  to  feel  the  omnipotence  of  God  and  to 
meditate  on  the  problem  of  eternity.  Naturally  her  hus- 
band's incurable  disease  influenced  her  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. At  this  time  a  clergyman  of  Trinity  Church,  the 
Eeverend  Mr.  Hobart,  acquired  no  little  influence  over  her. 
He  seems  to  have  been  sympathetic  and  to  have  had  a 
clear  understanding  of  her  character.  All  these  influ- 
ences strengthened  her  religious  feelings  and  her  letters 
and  writings  plainly  show  their  effects. 

As  years  passed,  the  disease  which  had  gripped  her  hus- 
band gradually  increased  its  hold  on  him  and,  as  a  last 
remedy,  Mrs.  Seton  resolved  to  take  him  to  Italy,  where, 
before  his  marriage,  he  had  been  greatly  benefited  by  the 
climate  of  Pisa.  He  had  become  acquainted  in  the  United' 
States  with  Mr.  Philip  Filicchi,  who,  with  his  brother, 
Antonio^  was  a  prosperous  merchant  in  Leghorn.  To 
Leghorn,  therefore,  Mrs.  Seton,  accompanied  by  her 
daughter  Anna,  resolved  to  take  her  sick  husband.  But 
all  to  no  avail.  William  Seton  died  in  Pisa  and  his  death 


218  THE    STTLPICIANS    Itf    THE    UNITED    STATES 

was  followed  by  further  misfortunes.  Anna  was  infected 
by  scarlet  fever,  and  after  her  recovery  Mrs.  Seton  herself 
was  stricken  with  the  same  complaint.  From  the  time  of 
their  arrival  in  Leghorn,  the  Filicchi  family  had  done 
everything  that  the  truest  friendship  could  do  for  the 
American  wanderers,  but  their  kindness  never  shone  more 
brightly  than  during  these  sad  days.  Nothing  that  good 
will  could  suggest  was  left  undone. 

The  brothers  Filicchi  were  remarkable  gentlemen.  They 
were  great  merchants,  but  greater  Christians.  They  were 
able  business  men,  but  their  hearts  were  even  more  in- 
terested in  the  cause  of  virtue  and  religion  than  in  com- 
merce. During  her  husband's  illness  and  after  his  death, 
Mrs.  Seton's  deeply  religious  character  had  excited  the 
admiration  of  the  brothers  and  interested  them  in  her 
spiritual  welfare.  They  had  drawn  the  attention  of  the 
American  lady  to  the  claims  of  the  Catholic  Church  and 
the  deficiencies  of  the  Episcopalian.  On  her  part,  Eliza- 
beth, both  during  her  husband's  and  her  own  sickness,  was 
profoundly  impressed  by  the  religious  life  and  principles 
of  her  Italian  friends,  for  Philip  Filicehi  was  a  man  well 
versed  in  Catholic  doctrine  and  enlightened  his  guest  on 
many  points  of  controversy.  He  copied  for  her  a  state- 
ment of  Catholic  doctrine  written  by  a  learned  friend  of 
his  at  Gubbio,  named  Joseph  Pecci,  remarkable  in  its 
brevity  and  clearness.1  Shortly  before  her  departure  from 
Italy,  Mrs.  Seton  also  visited  several  of  the  churches  of 
Florence  and  its  vicinity,  where  she  was  greatly  moved 
by  the  divine  service  and  was  above  all  impressed  by 
the  Catholic  belief  in  the  Real  Presence.  All  her  re- 
ligious experiences,  aided  by  the  always  ready  scholar- 
ship of  Philip  Filicchi  and  his  well  selected  books  explain- 
ing Catholic  teaching  and  ritual,  led  Mrs.  Seton  to  con- 

1  This  document  Is  given  In  full  In  vol.  1,  p.  151,  of  Archbishop  Robert 
Seton's  "Memoir,  Letters  and  Journal  of  Mrs.  Seton,"  and  is  a  powerful, 
concise  and  cogent  explanation  of  Catholic  doctrine.  Was  Joseph  Peed  a 
relative  of  Leo  XIII  ? 


THE    PBOTEGEES    OF    THE    8ULPICIAN8  219 

ceive  a  great  admiration  for  Catholics  and  their  Church. 
She  was  determined  to  examine  the  claims  of  the  Catholic 
Church  and  was,  in  fact,  all  but  satisfied  that  it  waa  the 
Church  established  by  Christ  and  the  Apostles. 

During  her  homeward  voyage  she  continued  her  studies, 
and  on  her  arrival  in  New  York  she  was  in  a  state  of 
mind  that  bordered  on  conviction.  But  serious  struggles 
awaited  her.  Most  of  her  husband's  family  spared  no 
effort  to  prevent  her  from  deserting  their  Church  and  the 
Eev.  Mr.  Hobart  did  his  best  to  deter  her  from  taking 
what  he  thought  would  be  a  fatal  step.  She  hesitated,  and 
consulted  some  of  the  Catholic  clergymen  to  whom  Antonio 
Filicchi,  who  had  come  with  her  to  the  United  States, 
recommended  her.  It  is  touching  to  read  her  appeals  for 
advice  and  instruction  made  to  Bishop  Carroll,  Father 
Cheverus  and  others.  At  last,  with  the  help  of  God,  she 
made  a  strenuous  effort,  and  on  March  14,  1804,  was  re- 
ceived into  the  Church  by  the  Rev.  Matthew  O'Brien  at 
St.  Peter's,  New  York.  By  thus  following  her  convic- 
tions, she  drew  down  upon  herself  a  storm  of  bitterness 
from  most  of  her  husband's  family  and  many  of  her 
friends.  She  had  returned  from  Europe  a  poor  widow, 
for  her  husband's  fortune  was  wrecked.  She  had  hitherto 
depended  upon  her  relatives,  but  this  support  was  now 
withheld.  Under  these  critical  circumstances  Antonio 
Filicchi,  in  his  own  and  his  brother's  name,  came  forward 
most  generously  to  assure  the  existence  and  the  support 
of  the  widow  and  orphans.  He  was  willing  to  pay  for  the 
education  of  the  two  boys  at  a  Catholic  school  in  Montreal, 
and  there  was  some  talk  of  Mrs.  Seton's  going  to  teach  in 
a  Montreal  convent,  where  the  girls  were  to  be  entered 
as  scholars.  But  these  plans  had  no  practical  results. 
The  boys  were  afterward  sent  to  Georgetown,  where  the 
Filicchis  paid  the  fees.  To  Mrs.  Seton  they  made  an 
allowance  of  $600  a  year,  and  this  with  her  salary  as 


220  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

teacher  in  a  New  York  private  school  enabled  her  to  main- 
tain herself  and  her  girls.  In  all  these  arrangements  Mrs. 
Seton  was  guided  by  some  of  the  Catholic  friends  to  whom 
she  had  been  introduced  by  Antonio  Filicchi  even  before 
her  conversion,  the  most  notable  of  whom  were  Bishop 
Carroll  of  Baltimore,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cheverus,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Matignon  and  especially  a  French  clergyman  named 
Tisserant,  residing  in  Elizabeth,  N.  J.  Besides  these  the 
pastors  of  St.  Peter's  Church  in  New  York,  chiefly  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Sibourd,  were  her  confidential  advisors. 

We  have  thus  brought  down  Mrs.  Seton's  story  to 
August,  1807,  when  she  met  with  the  Sulpician  presi- 
dent of  St.  Mary's  College  at  the  rectory  of  St. 
Peter's.  The  conversation  naturally  dealt  with  the  plans 
of  the  widow,  who  spoke  of  her  effort  to  enter  the  convent 
at  Montreal  where  her  daughters  were  to  be  educated. 
The  Sulpician,  who  was  a  sympathetic  and  generous  soul, 
at  once  suggested  that  she  start  a  school  in  Baltimore. 
This,  he  thought,  might  lead  to  the  foundation  of  a  Con- 
gregation of  nuns  to  further  Catholic  education.  The 
idea  was  entirely  in  accord  with  the  feelings  of  Mrs, 
Seton,  but  no  practical  steps  were  then  taken  to  realize 
the  scheme.  She  continued  to  make  her  living  by  board- 
ing some  school  children,  in  a  cottage  on  the  outskirts  of 
New  York,  where  disagreeable  incidents  often  reminded 
her  of  the  precariousness  of  her  position.  In  this  way  the 
time  passed  until  the  spring  of  1808,  when  M.  Dubourg 
came  to  New  York  on  the  occasion  of  the  burial  of  Mr. 
James  Barry,  a  mutual  friend.  When  he  met  Mrs.  Seton 
the  latter  half  playfully  alluded  to  the  scheme  of  starting 
a  school  in  Baltimore.  The  Sulpician  warmly  urged  her 
to  come  to  that  city,  telling  her  that  instead  of  waiting  to 
erect  a  building  on  the  seminary  grounds  it  would  be  more 
advantageous  to  rent  a  house  on  Paca  Street,  only  a  few 
hundred  feet  away  from  St.  Mary's  College.  M.  Dubourg 


THE  PBOTEGEES  OF  THE  SULPICIANS  221 

spoke  with  such  earnestness  from  the  fulness  of  his  ex- 
perience that  Mrs.  Seton's  doubts  were  dispelled. 

She  began  at  once  to  make  preparations  for  her  removal 
and  on  June  9,  1808,  set  sail  for  Baltimore.  She  arrived 
there  on  Corpus  Christi  day  and  assisted  at  the  dedication 
of  the  seminary  chapel.  "After  Mass,"  Mrs.  Seton  tells 
her  sister-in-law,  "I  was  in  the  arms  of  M.  Dubourg's 
sister,  surrounded  by  so  many  caresses  and  blessings.  My 
wonder  is  how  I  got  through  it  all.  The  feelings  were  lost 
with  delight."  Next  she  was  taken  to  the  house  of  M. 
Dubourg's  sister,  Mrs.  Fournier,  where  she  met  that  lady's 
children  and  her  brother.  In  the  evening  one  of  Mrs. 
Fournier's  children  recited  a  poetic  welcome  to  the  new 
arrival,  written  in  French  by  the  Sulpician  Father  Ba- 
bad,  who  so  impressed  Elizabeth  that  she  chose  him  to 
be  her  confessor. 

With  the  help  of  her  new  acquaintances  she  was  soon 
established  in  her  Baltimore  home  and  before  long  had  a 
circle  of  interested  friends  in  the  Maryland  city.  The 
Sulpician  Fathers,  especially,  showed  her  in  every  way  the 
warmest  proofs  of  their  friendship,  from  the  venerable 
superior,  M.  Nagot,  down  to  the  youngest  member.  She 
herself  was  busy  preparing  to  open  the  school  in  Septem- 
ber, when  to  her  great  joy  there  was  no  lack  of  pupils, 
every  place  in  her  school  being  filled.  Nor  was  the  project 
of  making  the  school  the  basis  of  a  new  congregation  of 
teaching  Sisters,  especially  for  poor  children,  lost  sight 
of,  and  M.  Babad  warmly  supported  the  scheme,  which 
had  the  approval  of  Bishop  Carroll,  M.  Cheverus  and  Mrs. 
Seton's  other  friends.  It  was  Father  Babad  who  brought 
the  first  recruit  to  Elizabeth  from  Philadelphia  in  the 
person  of  Miss  Cecilia  O'Conway,  a  young  lady  who  at 
the  time  thought  of  going  to  Europe  to  join  a  religious 
order.  She  was  followed  by  two  more  Philadelphia  ladies, 


222  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Miss  Maria  Murphy  and  Miss  Mary  Ann  Butler,  who  were 
soon  joined  by  Miss  Susan  Glossy  of  New  York. 

When,  in  the  spring  of  1809,  Father  Dubourg  saw 
this  little  band  gathered  in  Mrs.  Seton's  school,  he  thought 
it  time  to  take  steps  in  order  to  realize  the  plan  of  the 
new  religious  organization.  She  and  her  companions, 
therefore,  assumed  a  uniform  dress,  and  with  M.  Du- 
bourg's  assistance  a  code  of  rules  was  devised  for  the 
regular  government  of  the  community.  At  the  same  time 
Mrs.  Seton  bound  herself  by  a  formal  vow,  taken  in  the 
presence  of  Bishop  Carroll,  to  the  practice  of  poverty, 
chastity  and  obedience.  M.  Dubourg  was  appointed  eccle- 
siastical superior  of  the  community  so  organized  in  a 
tentative  way,  though  for  the  time  being  it  was  not  de- 
termined to  associate  it  with  any  existing  body  of  religious. 
While  no  name  was  definitely  adopted  for  the  new  organ- 
ization, the  members  were  temporarily  designated  as  the 
Sisters  of  St.  Joseph,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mrs.  Seton. 

About  this  time  there  was  as  a  student  of  theology  at 
St.  Mary's  Seminary  a  convert  from  Philadelphia  named 
Samuel  Cooper.1  He  was  a  man  of  some  means  which 
he  felt  he  ought  to  give  to  God  and  the  Church.  The 
thought  came  to  him  that  he  could  do  most  good  by  devot- 
ing it  to  the  education  of  poor  Catholic  children  and  he 
spoke  of  his  purpose  to  M.  Dubourg.  Simultaneously 
Mrs.  Seton  spoke  to  M.  Dubourg  of  her  desire  to  give  her- 
self especially  to  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  poor. 
The  Sulpician  brought  the  two  together  and  Mr.  Cooper 
resolved  to  appropriate  to  this  purpose  some  $8,000  that 
he  had  at  his  disposal.  Next  arose  the  question  of  select- 
ing a  place  for  the  new  institution  and  the  advice  of 
Bishop  Carroll  and  the  Sulpician  Superior,  M.  JsTagot, 
was  sought.  After  some  hesitation  they  approved  of  Mr. 

1  Mr.  Cooper  was  born  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  becoming  a  convert  to  the  church 
while  in  Philadelphia. 


THE  PBOTEGEES  OF  THE  SUXPICIAN8       223 

Cooper's  choice,  which  was  the  now  well-known  St.  Jo- 
seph's Valley,  near  the  village  of  Emmitsburg,  in  western 
Maryland.  M.  Nagot  himself  at  one  time  intended  to 
accompany  the  Sisters  to  Emmitsburg,  but  ill  health 
finally  prevented  the  carrying  out  of  this  purpose.  On 
June  21,  1809,  Mother  Seton  with  her  daughter,  her  two 
sisters-in-law  and  Sister  Cecilia  O'Conway,  left  Balti- 
more to  occupy  the  Emmitsburg  property.  On  arriving 
there,  however,  they  found  that  the  house  which  was  to 
be  their  home  was  not  ready  for  occupancy,  and  the  Sul- 
pician,  Father  Dubois,  afterward  Bishop  of  New  York, 
surrendered  his  own  residence  to  them,  and  withdrew  to 
the  seminary,  which  was  not  yet  completed.  M.  Dubois 
was  afterward  the  superior  of  St.  Joseph's  community  for 
a  number  of  years. 

During  the  want  and  distress  which  afflicted  St.  Jo- 
seph's community  during  the  first  year  or  two  of  its  strug- 
gle for  existence,  and  in  the  prolonged  illness  of  some  of 
the  Sisters,  especially  Mother  Seton's  sisters-in-law,  M. 
Dubois  faithfully  and  generously  helped  the  nascent  Sis- 
terhood with  material  means  where  he  could,  and  with 
personal  service  at  all  times.  When  less  trying  days  at 
length  smiled  upon  the  patient  little  band,  it  was  thought 
wise  to  organize  the  proposed  congregation  more  defi- 
nitely. Meantime  some  changes  had  occurred  among  the 
superiors  of  Si  Joseph's  community.  M.  Dubourg,  the 
first  superior,  had  been  called  to  new  duties  as  Bishop  of 
Louisiana  and  his  place  had  been  filled  by  M.  David, 
afterward  coadjutor  to  Bishop  Flaget  at  Bardstown.  M. 
David  in  his  turn  had  been  replaced  by  M.  Duboia,  the 
head  of  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg. 

Bishop  Carroll  and  the  Sulpician  superiors  of  St.  Jo- 
seph's, in  casting  about  for  the  rules  to  be  adopted  by  their 
protegees,  had  concluded  that,  with  some  modifications,  the 
rule  of  the  Daughters  of  Charity,  founded  by  St  Vin- 


224  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

cent  de  Paul,  would  best  meet  their  wants.  When,  there- 
fore, M.  Flaget,  after  his  promotion  to  the  see  of  Bards- 
town,  visited  France,  he  was  requested  to  obtain  for  St. 
Joseph's  a  copy  of  the  constitutions  which  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul  had  drawn  up  for  his  foundation.  On  his  return 
they  were  given  to  Mother  Seton  for  her  examination,  and 
by  her  were  turned  over  to  Bishop  Carroll  and  M.  Du- 
bourg.  After  careful  consideration  and  study,  it  was 
determined  to  adopt  as  far  as  possible  the  rules  of  the 
Daughters  of  Charity.  The  principal  point  on  which 
the  rules  were  changed  in  order  to  adapt  them  to  American 
conditions  concerned  the  activities  of  the  Sisters  in  the 
schools,  for  the  Daughters  of  Charity  of  St.  Vincent  de- 
voted themselves  entirely  to  the  service  of  children  unable 
to  pay  for  their  education.  This  could  be  done  in  France 
because  the  nuns  had  an  assured  income  from  other 
sources.  In  the  United  States,  on  the  contrary,  Mother 
Seton's  Sisterhood  had  no  income  whatever,  and  the  Sis- 
ters must  therefore  earn  their  daily  bread  in  part  by  their 
teaching  activity.  However,  from  the  beginning,  Mother 
Seton's  community  devoted  themselves  largely  to  the  edu- 
cation of  the  poor,  and  in  later  years  this  has  been  their 
principal  work.  Father  Dubois,  therefore,  felt  obliged  to 
recommend  to  Bishop  Carroll  a  change  in  the  rules  so  as 
to  allow  the  American  Sisterhood  to  take  charge  of 
schools  for  pupils  who  should  pay  for  their  tuition.  An- 
other proposed  change  was  temporary.  This  permitted 
Mother  Seton,  notwithstanding  her  vows,  to  remain  the 
legal  guardian  of  her  children. 

With  these  changes  the  rules  were  approved  by  Arch- 
bishop Carroll  in  the  following  words :  "I  have  read  and 
endeavored  in  the  presence  of  God  to  examine  the  consti- 
tutions of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  which  have  been  sub- 
mitted to  me  by  the  Eeverend  Superior  of  the  Seminary 
of  St.  Sulpice  and  have  approved  them,  believing  them 


THE    PBOTEGEKS    OF    THE    8CLPICIAN8  225 

inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  God  and  calculated  to  conduct 
the  Sisters  to  religious  perfection."  The  following  docu- 
ment also  accompanied  the  new  constitutions: 

"After  having  read  with  great  attention  the  constitu- 
tions of  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  and  approved  all  that  they 
contain,  I  have  presented  them  to  the  Very  Reverend  Arch- 
bishop Carroll  to  obtain  his  approbation.  At  the  same 
time  I  have  confirmed  and  here  confirm  anew  the  nom- 
ination of  Rev.  John  Dubois  as  Superior  General  of  the 
Congregation. 

"Jean  Tessier,  Superior  of  St  Sulpice." 

The  constitutions  vested  the  government  of  the  Society 
in  a  Mother  Superior  and  her  Assistant,  a  Treasurer  and 
a  Procuratrix,  but  provided  besides  for  a  Superior-general, 
who  was  to  be  consulted  in  all  important  matters  both 
temporal  and  spiritual.  As  first  Superior-general,  M. 
Tessier  appointed  M.  Dubois,  the  President  of  Mount  St 
Mary's  College,  thus  continuing  the  traditional  guardian- 
ship which  the  Sulpicians  had  from  the  beginning  extended 
to  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph.  The  constitutions,  which 
Archbishop  Carroll  had  thus  approved,  were  submitted  to 
the  votes  of  the  twenty  Sisters  who  were  members  of  the 
Society  at  this  time,  and  who  were  informed  that  they 
were  free  to  sever  their  connection  with  the  Society.  Only 
one  availed  herself  of  this  right. 

The  Sisterhood  so  established  with  the  aid  of  the  Sul- 
pician  Fathers  grew  more  and  more  prosperous  from  year 
to  year  under  the  Superior-generalship  of  Father  Dubois 
and  the  government  of  Mother  Seton.  Before  long  St 
Joseph's  was  strong  enough  to  send  a  colony  to  Philadel- 
phia and  this  was  followed  by  a  delegation  of  three  ! 
ters  to  Mount  St  Mary's  College.  In  June,  1817,  the 
new  orphan  asylum  of  New  York  was  confided  to  the 


226  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

spiritual  daughters  of  the  New  York  lady  who  had  been 
practically  forced  by  her  relatives  to  leave  her  native  city. 

Until  1817  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph  had  not  been  legally 
incorporated.  Their  property  was  held  in  the  names  of 
Samuel  Cooper,  William  Valentine  Dubourg  and  John 
Dubois,  the  last  two  members  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice. 
After  the  adoption  of  the  constitutions,  it  was  befitting 
that  the  new  Society  should  be  incorporated  and  legally 
invested  with  its  property  at  Emmitsburg.  It  is  related 
that  Mother  Seton,  who  did  not  see  the  advantage  of  this 
change,  asked  of  what  service  it  would  be  to  the  Sister- 
hood, and  was  told  that  it  would  enable  the  Sisterhood  to 
sue  and  be  sued.  Mother  Seton  shook  her  head  and  re- 
mained unconvinced.  The  friends  of  the  Sisters,  how- 
ever, appealed  to  the  Maryland  Legislature  for  an  act  of 
incorporation,  and  through  the  influence  of  General  Robert 
Harper,  son-in-law  of  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  this 
was  granted  in  January,  1817,  and  the  Sisters  of  St. 
Joseph  became  the  legal  owners  of  the  Emmitsburg  prop- 
erty. 

The  Society  of  St.  Joseph  expanded  and  flourished  for 
eleven  years  under  Mother  Seton,  who,  despite  her  poor 
health,  which  began  to  fail  in  1818,  was  able  to  send  out 
several  colonies  before  her  death  on  January  4,  1821.  She 
was  assisted  in  her  last  moments  by  another  Sulpician  who 
had  proved  a  devoted  friend  to  her  not  only  in  the  govern- 
ment of  her  Society  but  also  in  family  affairs.  This  was 
the  sympathetic  M.  Simon  Brute,  later  Bishop  of  Vin- 
cennes,  a  man  who  in  character  and  disposition  was  in 
many  ways  the  counterpart  of  Mother  Seton. 

Mother  Seton  was  succeeded  as  superior  by  Sister  Rose 
White,  a  Baltimore  lady  who  had  proved  her  executive 
ability  as  sister  servant,  as  the  superior  is  called,  of  the 
house  at  Philadelphia.  M.  Dubois  guided  and  assisted 
the  new  head  of  the  Society  with  the  same  zeal  and  fidelity 


THE    PBOTEGEES    OF    THE    8ULPICIAN8  227 

with  which  he  had  aided  the  foundress.  Indeed,  he  took 
such  a  lively  interest  in  the  Sisterhood  that  on  his  being 
raised  to  the  see  of  New  York,  he  thought  of  transfer- 
ring the  mother-house  from  St.  Joseph's  Valley  to  the 
metropolis,  a  suggestion  that  did  not  meet  with  Arch- 
bishop Marechal's  favor.  When  Bishop  Dubois  settled  in 
New  York,  M.  Louis  Regis  Deluol  took  his  place  as  su- 
perior of  St.  Joseph's.  He  lost  no  time  in  showing  that 
the  Sisters  had  a  valuable  friend  in  their  new  superior, 
working  with  such  unwearied  zeal  in  their  behalf  that 
some  of  his  Sulpician  superiors  in  Europe  deemed  it  wise 
to  moderate  his  zeal.  In  1829,  appeared  M.  Carriere,  who 
received  M.  Tessier's  resignation  and  appointed  M.  Deluol 
superior  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  The  program  of  the 
French  Superior,  M.  Gamier,  was,  as  the  reader  will 
remember,  to  free  the  American  Sulpicians  from  all  duties 
except  those  of  seminary  professors.  M.  Carriere  there- 
fore advised  M.  Deluol  to  give  up  his  position  as  imme- 
diate superior  of  the  Emmitsburg  Sisters.  This  he  did 
and  named  M.  Hickey  his  successor.  However,  his  title 
of  superior  of  the  Seminary  gave  him  a  sort  of  guardian- 
ship or  protectorate  over  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  whose 
confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  business  ability  of  their 
old  director  was  very  great,  and  he  continued  to  work  with 
vigor  and  zeal  for  their  interests.  It  was  in  no  slight 
degree  due  to  his  energetic  work  that  during  his  admin- 
istration the  Sisters  were  charged  with  nine  parochial 
schools,  seven  orphan  asylums,  three  academies  and  four 
hospitals. 

In  1846,  during  the  administration  of  Mother  Etienne, 
who  succeeded  Mother  Rose  White,  took  place  the  separa- 
tion of  the  New  York  Sisters  from  the  Sisters  of  St.  Jo- 
seph at  Emmitsburg.  The  differences  between  the  bishop 
and  the  sisterhood  originated  in  a  rule  adopted  by  the 
American  nuns  from  the  Sisters  of  Charity  of  St.  Vincent 


228  THE    STILPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

de  Paul,  which  allowed  the  Sisters  to  have  only  a  limited 
superintendence  of  boys'  orphan  asylums.  In  New  York 
the  American  Sisters  managed  the  boys'  orphan  asylum 
as  well  as  that  of  the  girls.  M.  Deluol  and  Mother 
Etienne  and  her  council  thought  it  was  time  to  revert  to 
the  strict  rule  of  St  Vincent  de  Paul,  while  Bishop  Hughes 
insisted  upon  maintaining  conditions  as  they  were.  This 
led  to  a  correspondence  conducted  on  the  part  of  the  Sis- 
terhood by  M.  Deluol.  In  the  end,  he  agreed  on  behalf 
of  the  Society  that  he  would  give  a  dispensation  to  those 
of  the  Sisters  stationed  in  the  New  York  diocese  who  pre- 
ferred to  become  members  of  the  new  Sisterhood  with  rules 
to  a  great  extent  the  same  as  those  of  the  Sisters  of  St. 
Joseph,  but  of  which  Bishop  Hughes  was  to  be  the  superior 
(1846).  The  rest  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph  remained 
under  the  government  of  their  superior-general,  Mother 
Etienne,  and  under  the  supervision  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Baltimore  and  the  protectorate  of  M.  Deluol.  From  1841, 
when  M.  Hickey  gave  up  the  directorship  of  the  Sisters, 
M.  Deluol  had  assumed  the  duties  of  that  office,  and  he 
now  redoubled  his  efforts  to  promote  their  work,  with  what 
success  we  have  already  seen.  The  Sisters  now  had  houses 
in  many  of  the  Middle  and  Western  States.  The  bless- 
ings scattered  throughout  the  United  States  by  these  modest 
ladies  cannot  be  overestimated  and  their  name  is  held  in 
honor  throughout  every  part  of  the  Church  in  America. 

To  such  prosperity  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph  had  at- 
tained with  the  assistance  of  their  Sulpician  directors  and 
under  their  wise  guardianship.  The  ties  between  the  Sis- 
terhood and  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  were  very  strong, 
and  the  Sisters  looked  with  gratitude  and  confidence  to 
the  Fathers  who  had  aided  their  institution  from  its  birth 
to  its  present  state  of  vigor.  M.  Deluol,  on  his  part,  as 
time  went  on  devoted  himself  to  the  duties  of  his  protec- 
torate with  more  and  more  ardor.  Still,  he  did  not  forget 


THE    PROTEGEES    OF    THE    8ULPICIAN8  229 

that  the  laws  of  his  Society  and  the  wishes  of  his  superiors 
in  France  had  decreed  the  separation  of  the  Sisterhood 
and  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  as  early  as  1835, 
he  had  inaugurated  active  measures  for  relinquishing  the 
guardianship  which  the  Sulpicians  had  always  exercised 
over  the  Sisters,  seeking  to  unite  them  with  the  French 
Sisters  of  Charity  founded  by  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  In 
that  year  Archbishop  Eccleston  requested  the  Lazarist 
visitor-general,  M.  Timon,  afterward  Bishop  of  Buffalo, 
to  urge  the  Lazarist  superiors  in  France  to  bring  about 
the  union  of  the  American  Sisterhood  with  the  Daughters 
of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  The  French  superiors  did  not 
approve  of  the  plan.  Ten  years  later,  however,  shortly 
before  the  differences  between  Bishop  Hughes  and  the 
Sisters  of  St.  Joseph  occurred,  new  negotiations  were 
opened.  The  bearer  of  these  new  proposals  was  Bishop 
Chanche  of  Natchez.  He  represented  Archbishop  Eccles- 
ton, M.  Deluol,  and  Mother  Etienne,  the  superior-general. 
The  Lazarist  superior,  whose  name  was  also  Etienne,  at 
first  did  not  listen  with  favor  to  the  American  bishop. 
However,  when  the  latter  presented  to  him  the  formal 
demand  of  the  American  Sisterhood  to  be  united  with  the 
French  Sisters  of  Charity,  signed  by  the  Archbishop,  the 
Sulpician  Protector  and  Mother  Etienne,  the  Lazarist 
asked  time  for  consideration.  At  that  time  Father  Mailer 
was  in  the  United  States  as  visitor-general  of  the  Lazarist 
houses.  To  him,  on  April  5,  1849,  M.  Etienne  wrote  re- 
garding the  project  and  instructed  him  to  see  personally  the 
Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  the  Sulpician  Fathers  and  the 
Sisters  at  Emmitsburg.  He  did  so  and  reported  that  all 
the  parties  interested  sincerely  desired  the  union  of  the 
American  with  the  French  Sisters.  Before  his  departure 
for  France,  M.  Deluol  entrusted  to  him  a  letter  to  M. 
Etienne,  impressing  upon  the  latter  the  advantages  of  the 
proposed  union.  M.  Mailer's  report  convinced  the  Laz- 


230  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

arist  Superior  of  the  opportuneness  of  the  step,  and  the 
request  of  the  American  Sisters  was  duly  granted  on 
July  7,  1849.  When  on  March  25,  1850,  the  American 
Sisters  renewed  their  vows,  it  was  done  according  to  the 
forms  used  by  the  Sisters  of  Charity  of  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul  in  France.  Finally  the  Emmitsburg  Sisters  and  the 
Sisters  of  all  the  houses  dependent  upon  them  assumed  the 
habit  of  the  French  Sisters  on  December  8,  1851.  Be- 
fore departing  for  Europe  M.  Deluol  resigned  his  func- 
tions as  Protector  of  the  Sisterhood  and  at  his  last  visit 
to  St.  Joseph's  convent,  Emmitsburg,  bade  them  an  affec- 
tionate farewell,  at  the  same  time  impressing  upon  them 
the  advantages  they  would  derive  from  their  new  connec- 
tion and  wishing  them  godspeed  for  the  future. 

Thus  were  severed  the  ties  that  bound  the  Sisters  of 
St.  Joseph  to  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  forty-two  years 
after  Mother  Seton,  with  the  help  of  M.  Dubourg  and  his 
confreres,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph. 
The  Sulpicians  had  stood  by  the  Sisters  in  the  days  of 
trial  and  poverty.  They  had  guided  them  through  the 
dangers  and  weakness  of  infancy  until  the  humble  house 
at  Emmitsburg  had  become  the  mother  of  many  schools, 
hospitals,  and  orphan  asylums  scattered  over  the  Middle, 
the  Western  and  the  Southern  States,  and  promising 
further  expansion  in  the  future.  The  Sulpicians  gave 
up  their  charge,  which  they  had  so  faithfully  and  la- 
boriously carried  out,  not  for  reasons  of  self-interest,  but 
because  they  saw  in  it  the  advantage  of  the  Sisterhood 
and  because  their  superiors  were  convinced  that  it  was 
God's  will,  as  expressed  in  their  rules  and  traditions. 

THE  OBLATE  SISTERS  OF  PROVIDENCE 

The  French  Revolution  brought  in  its  wake  a  series  of 
revolutionary  disorders  in  the  island  of  San  Domingo  and 


SANCTTARY  OF  ST.  MARY'S  SEMIXAKY  CHAPEL. 


THE    PBOTilGEES    OF    THE    8ULPICIAN8  231 

other  French  coloniee.  As  a  consequence  many  colonists 
were  murdered  and  others  fled  from  their  homes,  of  whom 
many  took  refuge  in  the  United  States  and  especially  in 
Baltimore.  Many  of  them  were  saved  by  their  faithful 
slaves,  who  accompanied  them  in  their  flight,  and  in  this 
way  not  a  few  colored  Catholics  came  to  Baltimore,  who 
were  mostly  persons  of  exemplary  piety.  On  settling  in 
Baltimore,  they  were  hospitably  received  by  the  Sulpician 
Fathers  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  This  was  all  the  more 
natural  as  the  West  Indian  refugees  did  not  speak  Eng- 
lish and  therefore  sought  spiritual  assistance  from  the  gen- 
tlemen of  St.  Sulpice,  whose  native  language  was  French. 
Moreover,  among  the  Sulpicians  recently  arrived  was  M. 
William  Valentine  Dubourg,  afterward  Bishop  of  New 
Orleans,  who  was  a  native  of  San  Domingo,  and  therefore 
took  a  special  interest  in  the  poor  colored  refugees.  He 
it  was  who,  in  1796,  started  a  catechism  class  for  them. 
When  he  departed  from  Baltimore,  he  left  his  colored  pro- 
tegees to  M.  Tessier,  who  afterward  became  the  second 
superior  of  the  Sulpician  Fathers.  This  faithful  priest 
became  devotedly  attached  to  his  colored  flock  and  for 
thirty-one  years  zealously  looked  after  the  spiritual  in- 
terests of  these  good  people,  serving  them  as  a  regular  con- 
fessor and  instructing  them  in  their  religion. 

In  1827,  the  San  Domingo  colored  Catholics  were  trans- 
ferred from  the  care  of  M.  Tessier  to  that  of  the  Kev. 
James  Nicholas  Joubert  de  la  Muraille,  who  was  destined 
to  become  the  founder  of  the  colored  Sisters  of  Providence, 
M.  Joubert  began  his  ministry  on  the  same  plan  as  that 
followed  by  M.  Tessier,  by  catechising  the  children.  His 
experience  was  not  very  happy.  On  the  first  Sunday  his 
•lass  knew  but  little  of  their  lesson,  and  notwithstanding 
his  earnest  exhortation,  the  next  Sunday  brought  no  better 
resnlts.  Nor  was  this  strange,  since  the  class,  both  young 
and  old,  hardly  knew  how  to  read.  M.  Joubert  pondered 


232  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

over  the  situation,  but  he  could  not  see  much  hope  unless 
his  scholars  first  learned  to  read  the  catechism.  This,  he 
saw,  would  require  the  founding  of  a  school.  He  was  fully 
conscious  of  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  such  a  plan,  but 
he  was  not  easily  daunted.  He  spoke  of  his  plan  to  M. 
Tessier,  who  approved  of  it,  but  reminded  him  that  it 
required  money,  and  he  did  not  see  where  the  money  was 
to  come  from.  He  directed  M.  Joubert  to  Archbishop 
Marechal.  That  prelate  equally  commended  the  plan,  but 
also  shrugged  his  shoulders  when  there  was  question  of 
finding  the  means.  M.  Joubert  saw  that  for  the  time  be- 
ing patience  was  the  only  remedy.  Seven  months  later, 
under  date  of  March,  1828,  we  read  in  his  diary  that  he 
was  more  convinced  than  ever  of  the  need  of  a  school  for 
colored  girls,  and  he  again  spoke  of  his  scheme  to  M. 
Tessier  and  to  Monseigneur  Whitfield,  the  administrator 
of  the  diocese.  They  left  him  free  to  try  whether  he 
.could  not  find  a  way  to  realize  his  plan.  He  was  not  the 
person  to  shirk  difficulties  when  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  that  something  ought  to  be  done,  his  training  and 
experience  having  made  him  a  man  of  determination, 
whom  obstacles  rather  attracted  than  discouraged. 

James  Nicholas  Joubert  de  la  Muraille  was  a  native 
of  St.  Jean  d'Angely,  on  the  west  coast  of  France,  where 
he  was  born  September  6,  1777.  At  the  age  of  three  or 
four,  his  parents  moved  to  Beauvais,  whence  in  due  time 
he  was  sent  to  the  military  school  at  Rebois-en-Brie.  How- 
ever, for  some  reason,  he  abandoned  the  soldier's  career 
and  secured  a  position  in  the  tax  department.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-three  he  was  commissioned  by  the  .French 
tax  department  to  go  to  San  Domingo,  which  was  a  hot- 
bed of  disorder.  He  remained  there  for  three  years,  when 
he  was  driven  out  by  the  rebels  and  took  refuge  in  Cuba. 
His  uncle,  C.  Joubert  de  Maine,  who  had  been  a  wealthy 
and  prominent  man  in  San  Domingo,  was  also  obliged  to 


THE    PROTEGEES    OF    THE    8ULPICIAN8  233 

leave  the  island  and  he  and  his  nephew  later  found  their 
way  to  Baltimore.  Here  in  1805  Nicholas  entered  St 
Mary's  Seminary.  In  1810  he  was  ordained  and  shortly 
after  became  a  member  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice.  Hia 
character  and  career  pointed  him  out  to  his  superiors  as 
a  man  of  business,  likely  to  enforce  order.  Accordingly 
from  the  first  we  find  him  employed  as  the  chief  disci- 
plinarian of  the  college,  to  which  was  subsequently  added 
the  treasurership.  At  the  same  time,  he  was  instructor 
in  French  and  geography.  While  as  teacher  and  disci- 
plinarian he  maintained  the  strictest  order,  he  was,  never- 
theless, well  liked  by  the  students.  Such  were  his  duties 
from  1810  to  1828,  when  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
catechetical  instruction  given  to  the  colored  people. 

Having  been  left  free  by  the  administrator  of  the  dio- 
cese and  his  superior  to  try  his  plan  of  establishing  a 
school  for  the  instruction  of  the  colored  people,  his  eyes 
were  directed  primarily  to  the  colored  San  Domingo  exiles. 
It  was  they  who  formed  the  whole  or  the  principal  part 
of  the  catechism  classes  instituted  in  the  seminary  chapel. 
As  these  people  for  many  years  spoke  only  the  French 
language,  the  catechism  was  at  first  taught  only  in  French, 
but  as  M.  Joubert  took  charge  of  this  colored  catechism 
class  more  than  thirty  years  after  the  establishment  of 
the  colored  congregation  by  MM.  Dubourg  and  Tessier 
it  is  probable  that  by  that  time  the  catechism  was  taught 
in  English.  From  entries  in  the  diary  of  the  Sisters,  we 
learn  that  addresses  in  French  were  delivered  before  them 
even  much  later,  and  that  the  Sisters  regarded  their  French 
address  as  a  peculiar  favor,  whence  we  infer  that  English 
was  the  language  usually  employed  in  the  discourses  de- 
livered in  the  church. 

At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  colored  San  Domingo 
exiles  were  much  better  educated  than  the  average  Ameri- 
can slave  population,  for  the  colored  ladies  whom.  M. 


234  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Joubert  called  upon  to  assist  him  to  found  the  Oblate  Sis- 
ters of  Providence  were  teachers,  then  presiding  over  a 
school  for  colored  children  in  Baltimore.     One  of  these 
was  a  Cuban  lady  named  Elizabeth  Lange,  while  the  other 
two,   'Marie    Rosine   Boegue  and  Marie  Frances  Balais, 
came  from  San  Domingo.     In  March,  1828,  M.  Joubert 
met  two  of  these  women  and  learned  from  them  that  for 
some  ten  years  preceding  they  had  thought  of  founding 
a  school  for  colored  girls,  that  MM.  Babad  and  Moran- 
ville  had  encouraged  them  in  this  project  and  that  in  fact 
for  the  last  year  they  had  kept  such  a  school  where  they 
taught  colored  children  gratuitously.     However,  as  they 
had  not  the  means  to  continue  the  work,  they  had  given 
up  the  school.     M.  Joubert  on  thinking  over  his  plans 
concluded  that  to  make  the  school  permanent,  it  would  be 
better  to  start  a  society  of  religious,  who  would  be  kept 
together  by  their  vows  and  their  piety.     As  this  was  an 
idea  already  entertained  by  the  colored  women,  his  plan 
was  readily  accepted.     On  April  22d,  therefore,  he  met 
two  of  the  three  women  and  agreed  to  begin  work.     To 
provide  the  money  necessary  Mrs.  Chatard,  wife  of  the 
well  known  Baltimore  physician  of  that  name,  their  grand- 
son being  future  Bishop  of  Indianapolis,  and  Mrs.  Ducatel 
volunteered  to  gather  subscriptions  among  their  friends. 
The  colored  women  thereupon  hired  a  house  on  St.  Mary's 
Court  and  took  possession  of  it  June  13,  1828.     Eleven 
boarders  and  nine  day  scholars  attended  the  school  from 
the  start. 

Though  the  Sisters  were  still  novices,  Elizabeth  Lange 
was  made  superior  of  the  community.  Before  they  had 
concluded  their  novitiate  on  June  1,  1829,  they  were 
joined  by  Marie  Therese  Duchemin,  who  prepared  herself 
to  take  her  vows  along  with  the  other  three  women.  This 
event  took  place  on  June  2,  1829,  not  without  some  alarm 
on  the  part  of  the  Sisters.  There  were  rumors  in  the 


THE    PROTEGEES    OF    THE    8ULIMCIAX8  235 

city  of  what  was  going  to  take  place  and  some  narrow- 
minded  people  declared  that  the  profession  of  the  colored 
Sisters  would  be  a  profanation  of  the  habit.  The  women 
in  their  simplicity  consulted  M.  Joubert,  who  encouraged 
them  and  told  them  not  to  fear.  Afterthoughts,  however, 
made  him  hesitate  and  he  went  to  consult  Archbishop 
Whitfield,  who  authorized  him  to  proceed  with  the  cere- 
mony, saying  that  he  had  considered  every  phase  of  the 
case  beforehand.  As  we  hear  no  more  of  opposition  to  the 
Sisterhood  and  as  ladies  of  the  highest  rank,  like  Mrs. 
Chatard  and  Mrs.  Ducatel  and  their  friends,  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  become  their  patrons  openly,  we  are  justified  in 
inferring  that  the  good  Sisters  were  frightened  by  idle 
rumors. 

Moreover,  they  were  convinced  before  long  that  they 
were  under  the  protection  of  the  highest  authorities  in  the 
Church.  On  October  21,  1829,  Archbishop  Whitfield, 
accompanied  by  Bishops  Flaget,  Fenwick  and  Rosati,  and 
by  the  future  Bishops  Brute  of  Vincennes  and  Blanc  of 
New  Orleans,  paid  his  first  visit  to  the  school.  When 
asked  to  bless  the  Sisters,  Bishop  Flaget  told  them  that 
though  they  were  but  four  at  the  time,  they  would  number 
twelve  in  two  years.  A  fortnight  afterward  Bishop  Eng^ 
land  of  Charleston  honored  the  new  community  with  a  visit 
and  after  reading  the  rules  of  the  Sisters  expressed  his 
full  satisfaction. 

The  school  flourished  from  the  start.  Less  than  a 
twelve-month  after  it  was  opened,  the  house  occupied  by 
it  was  too  small.  The  Sisters  purchased  a  home  from  Dr. 
Chatard,  which  had  to  be  enlarged  to  satisfy  the  needs  of 
the  school.  On  July  12,  1830,  the  children  who  had  been 
prepared  for  first  Communion,  their  parents  and  their 
friends,  assembled  in  the  lower  chapel  of  the  seminary, 
where  the  ceremony  took  place,  to  the  great  edification  of 
parents  and  pupils.  In  due  time,  the  commencement  wag 


at 


ganda  n     of  the 


vows,  to  be  renewed 

^ 

long  the  Sisl  ™  ^  Baltimore,  on  the  occa 

to  render  service  to  tne  cuy  The 


the  most  edifymg  s.mp  hcrty  te  and  diree- 


,. 


CHAPTER  X 
ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1829-1852 

The  sword  of  Damocles  threatened  St.  Mary's  College 
from  the  time  of  M.  Carriere's  visit  in  1829  and  the  life 
of  the  college  hung,  so  to  say,  on  a  thread.  Yet  these  were 
the  halcyon  days  of  the  institution.  It  grew  in  the  number 
of  its  teachers  and  of  its  scholars,  in  its  reputation  and 
popularity  and  in  the  thoroughness  of  its  work.  It  is  now 
time  to  return  to  the  history  of  the  college  and  to  pursue 
its  inner  and  outer  fortunes. 

In  1829  M.  Damphoux,  who  had  been  the  president  of 
the  College  for  eleven  years,  resigned  his  office  and  severed 
his  connection  with  St.  Sulpice.  He  was  succeeded  by 
M.  Samuel  Eccleston,  whom  we  have  encountered  on  more 
than  one  occasion  in  the  course  of  our  narrative.  He  was 
himself  an  alumnus  of  St.  Mary's  College,  a  distinguished 
scholar,  an  attractive  orator  and  a  man  of  affaire.  He  was 
affable  and  dignified,  a  learned  priest  who  inspired  respect 
and  love  and  whose  merits  were  appreciated  by  his  col- 
leagues as  well  as  by  the  students  of  the  college.  He  was 
an  admirable  representative  of  Sulpician  methods  and  the 
Sulpician  body.  But  M.  Eccleston  was  not  destined  to  rule 
St.  Mary's  for  a  long  time.  So  distinguished  and  able  a 
man,  no  matter  how  modest,  how  averse  to  promotion  to  the 
hierarchy,  and  how  true  to  the  Sulpician  principles,  could 
not  escape  the  fate  of  being  raised  to  the  episcopate.  In 
1834,  when  he  had  been  president  of  St.  Mary's  for  only 
five  years,  M.  Eccleston  became  the  fifth  Archbishop  of 

Baltimore. 

237 


238  THE    SUI.PICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

His  successor  as  president  of  the  college  was  his  most 

ic£  ^f^ 

-Born  in  1795  of  French  parents,  who  had  been 


Knl-mPlRTlS    at    Jjailimuicj    O..LIVJ.  , 


M.  . 

- 


ST.  MABY'S  COLLEGE,  1829-1852  239 

its  prosperity,  and  was  not  forgotten  by  its  alumni  half  a 
century  after  its  closing. 

The  course  of  studies  followed  at  St.  Mary's  during  the 
last  twenty  years  of  its  existence  did  not  essentially  differ 
from  the  curriculum  we  have  described  above.  Indeed, 
these  were  days  of  educational  conservatism,  and  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  among  Catholics 
and  non-Catholics,  there  was  no  evidence  of  revolutionary 
innovation  in  the  field  of  education.  Besides,  from  the 
time  of  its  organization,  the  college  had  been  in  the  van 
of  the  educational  movement  and  maintained  itself  in  this 
position  until  the  close  of  its  career.  The  faculty  and 
instructors  during  this  time  were  not  inferior  to  the  edu- 
cators who  had  given  so  progressive  an  impulse  from  the 
start.  Some  of  the  best  professors  who  had  done  most 
to  give  St.  Mary's  its  initial  reputation  were  still  alive. 
Others  had  passed  away,  but  had  been  replaced  by  men  of 
-equal  merit.  The  Sulpicians,  MM.  Joubert,  Hickey, 
Elder,  Knight  and  Lhomme,  had  been  members  of  the 
faculty,  some  for  a  longer,  some  for  a  shorter  time  be- 
fore 1829,  and  all  but  M.  Hickey  remained  to  the  clos- 
ing of  the  college.  The  faculty,  as  far  as  its  principal 
members  were  concerned,  consisted  of  well-tried  veterans, 
of  whose  ability  and  experience  there  could  be  no  question. 
We  are  already  acquainted  with  the  merits  of  M.  Joubert 
as  a  disciplinarian  and  of  M.  Hickey  as  teacher  of  English 
literature  and  rhetoric.  M.  Lhomme  was  an  able  Greek 
scholar  and  M.  Randanne,  the  professor  of  Latin,  was  the 
author  of  a  Latin  Grammar  which  was  used  at  St.  Mary's 
and  in  other  institutions  for  many  years.  Its  merits  were 
attested  by  the  fact  that  it  had  a  number  of  editions. 

To  the  Sulpician  members  of  the  faculty  must  be  added 
M.  Verot,  the  scientist,  and  Mr.  Pizarro,  the  professor  of 
Spanish,  who  were  prominent  members  of  the  teaching 
body.  Professor  Pizarro  published  a  book  of  Spanish 


240  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

dialogues.  He  was  the  teacher  of  S.  Teakle  Wallis,  who 
subsequently  became  a  corresponding  member  of  the 
Spanish  Academy,  but  never  forgot  what  he  owed  to  his 
old  professor.  He  is  said  to  have  helped  his  former 
teacher  in  his  old  age,  and  to  have  provided  for  his  burial 
in  his  own  family  plot.  Of  M.  Verot,  who  afterward  be- 
came Bishop  of  Savannah,  we  have  already  said  that  he 
was  a  distinguished  scientist  and  mathematician,  who  be- 
came the  friend  of  many  other  American  scientific  schol- 
ars, especially  of  Professor  Henry,  the  head  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution. 

The  elementary  instruction  and  the  discipline  of  the 
college  were  largely  in  the  hands  of  seminarians,  some 
of  whom  subsequently  acquired  a  considerable  reputation. 
However,  there  were  also  lay  professors  who  taught  at 
the  college  for  a  number  of  years  and  who  were  probably 
not  seminarians.  Among  them,  we  note  the  younger 
Wenninger,  whose  activity  at  the  college  extended  from 
1815  to  1839;  Samuel  Smith  (1820-51) ;  M.  S.  Gallagher 
(1827-34)  ;  and  H.  J.  Myers  (1827-36).  Mr.  Kelly  was 
professor  of  music  (1823-1852).  The  professor  of  Ger- 
man in  1843-44  was  Maximilian  Oertel,  a  converted  Lu- 
theran minister.  Whether  he  studied  for  the  priesthood 
we  are  not  aware,  but  he  is  well  known  as  the  pioneer  of 
the  Catholic  German  press  in  the  United  States,  having 
founded  the  "Katholische  Wahrheitsfreund"  of  Cincin- 
nati. In  the  fifties  he  founded  the  New  York  "Kirchen- 
zeitung,"  which  was  a  well-known  Catholic  journal  in  the 
sixth  and  seventh  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century.1 

We  see  that  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  had  every  claim 
to  be  regarded  as  an  able  and  experienced  body  and  we  are 
not  surprised  that  the  college  attracted  numerous  students, 
many  of  whom,  as  a  result  of  their  training,  became  men 

1  See  biography  of  M.   Oertel   by  the  present  writer  in   "Records  and 
Studies,"  vol.  iv,  p.  139  sqq. 


ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  1829-1852  241 

of  note.  The  jubilee  volume  published  by  St.  Mary's 
Seminary  in  1891  furnishes  us  with  most  of  the  namea 
of  the  college  students  who  were  matriculated  there  until 
its  close  in  1852.  This  list,  while  it  cannot  be  considered 
complete,  at  least  enables  us  to  study  the  student  body  in 
some  detail  and  furnishes  the  means  of  learning  its  com- 
ponent parts  and  of  ascertaining  the  relative  number  of 
the  students.  The  results  of  this  study  are  most  inter- 
esting. We  do  not  learn,  it  is  true,  the  exact  number  of 
students  at  any  time,  but  it  is  certain  that  it  never  reached 
three  hundred.  During  the  last  few  years,  when  the  ap- 
proaching suppression  of  the  college  became  known,  the 
number  of  students  inevitably  decreased,  but  even  to 
the  end,  the  college  had  a  surprisingly  strong  grip  upon  ita 
clientage. 

In  this,  as  in  the  early  period  of  the  college,  a  large 
proportion  of  the  students  were  non-Catholics,  the  namea 
being  equally  balanced  between  English  and  non-English. 
In  the  latter  category  we  include  Irish,  German,  French, 
Spanish  and  Italian  names,  with  a  very  slight  sprinkling 
of  Jews.  The  Hebrews  probably  did  not  number  more 
than  three  in  all.  Expressed  in  percentage,  we  find  that 
the  English  names  amount  to  about  55  per  cent  of  the 
whole,  whereas  about  11  per  cent  each  must  be  credited 
to  the  Irish,  German,  French  and  Spanish  names.  We  are 
surprised  that  the  Irish  element  should  prove  so  weak,  but 
our  astonishment  is  not  justified  if  we  bear  in  mind  that 
in  1852  the  strong  Irish  immigration  had  only  just  begun, 
and  that  we  should  not  expect  recent  immigrants  to  be 
able  to  send  their  children  to  a  boarding  college.  Of 
course,  the  Irish,  Spanish  and  French  contingents  were 
entirely  Catholic,  and  the  German  students  were  mostly 
so,  being  largely  derived  from  the  old  Catholic  Pennsyl- 
vania settlement. 

The  55  per  cent  of  English  names,  of  course,  is  largely 


242  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

descended  from  the  old  Catholic  settlers  in  Maryland.  In 
fact  the  records  of  the  college  show  that  between  1818 
and  1827  the  number  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  boys  near- 
ly balanced  one  another.  In  some  years  the  Catholics  were 
in  the  majority,  while  in  others,  sometimes  even  the  very 
next  year,  the  Protestants  were  the  more  numerous.  But 
the  excess  on  either  side  was  usually  very  small.  Surely 
this  is  a  remarkable  testimonial  to  the  tolerance  and  kindly 
feeling  both  of  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants.  Most 
of  the  distinguished  names  from  South  Carolina,  how- 
ever, which  we  remarked  in  the  early  period  of  the  college, 
have  disappeared,  while  we  note  the  new  name  of  Legare 
from  Charleston.  North  Carolina  sends  a  respectable  con- 
tingent of  students,  while  a  much  smaller  proportion  comes 
from  Virginia.  The  French  students  are  largely  Balti- 
more and  Louisiana  boys;  the  number  of  West  Indians 
seems  to  diminish.  All  in  all,  St.  Mary's  has  kept  a 
strong  hold  on  the  Spanish  and  French  West  Indians  and 
can  still  boast  of  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  its  students. 
Of  the  Catholic  Maryland  families  we  find  on  the  rolls 
of  the  college  the  Carrolls,  the  Jenkinses,  the  Knotts,  the 
O'Donnells,  the  Chatards,  the  Tiernans,  the  Boarmans, 
the  Chapelles,  the  Blenkinsops;  of  the  non-Catholics,  the 
Howards,  the  Ellicotts  and  the  Johnsons.  Of  Pennsyl- 
vania Catholic  names  we  note  that  of  Bouvier  and  of  the 
New  York  names  that  of  Thebaud.  The  Iturbide  name 
has  several  representatives,  as  had  the  family  of  Garesche, 
said  to  have  its  home  in  Delaware. 

Among  the  distinguished  alumni  of  St.  Mary's  College 
during  this  period  appear  Thomas  Foley,  Coadjutor- 
Biahop  of  Chicago  (1870-1879),  and  his  brother  John 
Samuel  (1851),  Bishop  of  Detroit;  and  the  Jesuit,  Father 
Charles  Hitzelberger  of  Baltimore  (1841).  The  Rev- 
erend J.  A.  Walter  became  well  known  as  the  pastor  of 
St.  Patrick's  Church  in  Washington,  being  also  distil*- 


ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE,  1829-1852  243 

guished  for  his  charity.1  The  Reverend  J.  J.  Dougherty 
was  for  a  short  time  administrator  of  the  archdiocese  of 
Baltimore. 

We  have  already  mentioned  Severn  Teakle  Wallis,  who 
was  graduated  in  1832,  and  Robert  Milligan  McLane, 
graduated  in  1833.  After  graduating  at  West  Point  in 
1837  and  distinguishing  himself  in  the  Seminole  and  other 
Indian  wars,  the  latter  became  a  lawyer,  and  was  elected 
to  Congress  1845-1851,  afterward  serving  as  minister  to 
China  and  then  to  Mexico  (1859).  He  withdrew  from 
political  life  during  the  Civil  War,  but  subsequently  re- 
turned to  Congress.  He  became  Governor  of  Maryland  in 
1883,  resigned  in  1885  and  was  appointed  minister  to 
France  the  same  year,  dying  there  in  1898.  Christopher 
Johnston  (1836  and  after)  became  an  eminent  physician 
and  surgeon,  professor  of  anatomy  and  physiology  and 
eventually  of  surgery  in  the  University  of  Maryland.  He 
was  also  president  of  the  Maryland  Academy  of  Sciences. 
Charles  O'Donovan  (1850)  was,  like  Professor  Johnston, 
a  physician  of  note.  Simon  Bolivar  Daniel  Danela 
(1844),  son  of  John  Daniel  Danels,  captain  in  the 
Colombian  navy,  was  for  a  long  time  consul  for  Venezuela 
at  Baltimore.  Oden  Bowie,  who  was  graduated  in  1845, 
became  Governor  of  Maryland  in  the  sixties.  A.  Leo 
Knott  became  a  distinguished  jurist,  was  Attorney-Gen- 
eral of  Maryland  1867,  1871  and  1875  and  Assistant  Post- 
master-general under  President  Cleveland. 

St.  Mary's  College  was  therefore  a  flourishing  institu- 
tion in  1845,  when  M.  Gamier  died  and  M.  do  Coureon 
became  Superior-general,  and  nothing  seemed  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  its  further  progress.  But  to  the  French  and  to 
many  of  the  American  members  of  St.  Sulpice  it  waa 
looked  upon  as  an  anomaly.  They  therefore  sent  M.  Fail- 

1  Father  Walter  attended  Mrs.  Surratt  before  h««r  ««witlon.  «f  which 
he  wrote  an  account,  published  In  the  "United  Stntf*  Catholic  IlUtorlcal 
Magazine,"  vol.  ill,  p.  353  sqq. 


244  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Ion  to  the  United  States,  where  he  arrived  in  1849.  The 
obstacles  which,  at  the  time  of  M.  Carriere's  visit,  had 
made  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  give  up  the  college 
had  now  been  in  part  removed.  The  contract  of  the 
trustees  of  the  college  with  the  Legislature  had  been  com- 
pletely fulfilled.  Moreover,  the  Jesuit  Fathers  were  then 
inclined  to  establish  a  college  in  the  city  of  Baltimore. 
Negotiations  were  therefore  entered  into  between  the  Sul- 
pician  and  the  Jesuit  superiors,  which  promised  a  satis- 
factory arrangement. 

Thus  St.  Mary's  College  was  destined  to  disappear  from 
the  list  of  American  academic  institutions.  It  had  kept 
faith  with  the  State  of  Maryland,  which  had  so  liberally 
befriended  it  in  its  infancy.  It  had  met  the  educational 
requirements  of  the  parents  who  had  so  long  shown  their 
confidence  in  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  by  entrusting 
to  them  their  sons.  It  had  earned  the  gratitude  of  its 
alumni  by  being  their  true  and  intelligent  mother,  who 
most  conscientiously  satisfied  their  moral  and  intellectual 
needs.  It  was  to  pass  away  by  a  voluntary  act  of  devotion 
to  principle,  to  which  it  sacrificed  the  most  favorable  pros- 
pects for  the  future. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  COLLEGE  OF  ST.   CHARLES 
BALTIMORE 

By  the  charter  of  the  Maryland  Legislature,  passed  on 
February  3,  1830,  the  College  of  St.  Charles  was  created 
a  corporation.  Its  walls  and  framework  were  completed 
in  1832,  its  opening  was  advertised  in  the  "Catholic  Al- 
manac" from  1839,  its  interior  fittings  provided  and  ita 
debts  paid  by  the  donation  of  the  Reverend  B.  S.  Piot  in 
1840.  But  notwithstanding  all  these  circumstances,  the 
college  was  not  opened.  Of  the  original  Board  of  Trus- 
tees numbering  five,  a  bare  quorum,  consisting  of  MM. 
Eccleston,  Deluol  and  Elder,  remained.  In  1848  Arch- 
bishop Eccleston  of  Baltimore,  who  had  always,  like  hia 
former  Sulpician  confreres,  been  convinced  that  a  lower 
seminary  was  needed  in  the  Baltimore  diocese,  thought 
that  the  time  for  opening  St.  Charles'  had  come.  Whether 
this  conviction  was  due  to  the  small  number  of  priestly 
vocations  which  St.  Mary's  College  had  thus  far  fur- 
nished, or  to  the  increase  of  the  Catholic  body  in  Baltimore 
and  the  United  States  or  to  M.  de  Courson,  the  newly 
elected  superior  of  the  Sulpicians  in  France,  or  to  all 
three  factors,  we  do  not  know.  Nor  do  we  know  how  M. 
Raymond,  then  president  of  St.  Mary's  College,  arrived 
at  the  same  conclusion.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  in  a  con- 
ference with  M.  Deluol  on  September  26,  1848,  Arch- 
bishop Eccleston  declared  his  determination  that  the  new 
college  should  be  opened  on  November  1  of  that  year.  M. 
Deluol,  who  had  his  grave  misgivings  as  to  the  timeliness 

245 


246  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

of  this,   said  that  he  would  abide  by  the  archbishop'8 
opinion. 

After  night  prayers,  on  September  27,  1848,  M.  Ray- 
mond called  to  his  room  Father  Oliver  L.  Jenkins,  then 
a  teacher  in  St.  Mary's  College,  spoke  to  him  of  the  arch- 
bishop's wish  to  open  St.  Charles'  College  on  the  first 
of  November,  and  told  him  that  his  name  had  been  pro- 
posed for  the  presidency.  Father  Jenkins  replied  that  if 
this  was  God's  will  he  was  quite  ready  to  undertake  the 
work.  The  following  day  at  dinner  M.  Raymond  read  a 
paragraph  from  a  newspaper  in  which  Father  Jenkins  was 
mentioned  as  the  president  of  St.  Charles'.  All  the  Sul- 
picians  present  congratulated  him  but  he  declined  the 
title,  because,  as  far  as  he  knew,  the  superior  (M.  Deluol) 
had  not  authorized  any  such  appointment.  On  Septem- 
ber 29,  Father  Jenkins  received  the  following  letter,  en- 
closing $250,  from  Archbishop  Eccleston: 

"Rev.  and  Dear  Sir: — I  am  truly  delighted  and  con- 
soled at  the  prospect  of  having  St.  Charles'  College  at 
length  thrown  open  to  receive  the  future  ministers,  and, 
I  trust,  ornaments  of  the  sanctuary.  When  this,  the  most 
ardent  and  long  cherished  wish  of  my  heart,  shall  have 
been  accomplished,  I  will  be  almost  anxious  to  say  my 
Nunc  Dimittis.  I  am  happy  also  to  add  that  in  your  ap- 
pointment as  its  first  president,  I  have  the  strongest  guar- 
anty of  its  stability  and  successful  operation.  .  .  . 

"Wishing  you  every  blessing,  especially  in  the  dis- 
charge of  the  important  trust  committed  to  your  zeal  and 
piety,  I  am  devotedly  yours  in  Christ, 

"Samuel,  Abp.  Bait." 

After  some  hesitation,  Father  Jenkins  sent  the  follow- 
ing reply  to  the  Archbishop: 

"Your  Grace: — 

"The  peculiar  circumstances  in  whieh  I  find  myself 


REV.  OUVKK  L.  JKXKINS. 


THE    COLLEGE    OF    ST.    CHABLE8,    BALTIMORE         247 

in  regard  to  the  letter  which  I  received  from  you  have 
prevented  my  answering  it  immediately.  Though  I  feel 
greatly  honored  by  the  expression  of  your  good  will,  I 
cannot  consider  myself  president  of  St  Charles'.  At  the 
same  time  I  cannot,  because  of  the  respect  and  obedience 
which  I  owe  to  my  superior,  take  any  steps  in  the  under- 
taking which  you  have  so  much  at  heart  before  being 
aware  of  M.  Deluol's  wishes  nor  without  having  been  ex- 
pressly named  by  him.  Up  to  this  moment  I  have  not 
heard  a  word  from  him  on  the  subject.  The  importance 
of  the  work  in  question,  as  well  as  considerations  of  deli- 
cacy, forbid  my  taking  the  initiative  or  taking  any  steps 
that  may  in  any  way  influence  his  decision.  I  shall  there- 
fore keep  the  generous  gift  contained  in  your  note  until  I 
know  something  definite.  In  any  case,  I  shall  always  be 
grateful  to  you  for  the  warm  expression  of  your  confi- 
dence in  me  and  for  your  good  will.  With  the  help  of 
God,  I  shall  endeavor  to  do  nothing  that  might  cause  the 
loss  of  the  former  or  the  lessening  of  the  latter. 
"I  am  ever, 
"Your  affectionate  and  obedient  son  and  servant, 

"Oliver  Jenkins."  » 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  very  day  on  which  this  letter 
was  written,  M.  Deluol  had  an  interview  with  Father  Jen- 
kins and  informed  him  that,  though  it  would  give  him 
pain  to  part  from  him  and  though  he  had  his  doubts  as 
to  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  he  thought  it  was  the  will 
of  God  that  "I  should  accept  the  office  which  the  Arch- 
bishop wished  to  entrust  to  me." 

A  few  days  later,  on  October  4,  Archbishop  Eccleston, 
M.  Deluol  and  M.  Elder,  as  the  only  members  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  met  and  filled  the  vacancies  due  to  the 
death  of  M.  Tessier  and  the  promotion  of  M.  Chanche 

*  The  above  text  la  translated  from  Andr*  In   "Bolletln  Trinie«trl*l," 
No.  59,  p.  565. 


24:8  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

to  the  see  of  Natchez,  by  electing  MM.  Raymond  and 
Oliver  L.  Jenkins.  The  two  new  members  of  the  Board 
were  immediately  installed  and  chose  Father  Jenkins  as 
president  of  St.  Charles'.1  Thereupon  he  laid  before  the 
Board  a  prospectus  of  the  college  which  he  had  prepared 
the  night  before  and  which  seems  to  have  been  approved 
by  the  Board.  Thus,  eighteen  years  after  its  incorpora- 
tion, St.  Charles'  College  received  its  first  president.  But 
it  had  as  yet  neither  students  nor  income.  Forthwith  the 
Archbishop  called  a  meeting  of  the  clergy  for  October  12, 
to  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  the  professors  and  the 
students.2  He  placed  before  them  the  reasons  which  led 
him  to  open  immediately  the  College  of  St  Charles,  and 
appealed  to  their  generosity  to  support  the  new  institu- 
tion. The  Archbishop's  proposal  was  approved  and  four- 
teen of  the  pastors  pledged  themselves  to  give  $100  each 
for  the  support  of  one  student  in  the  new  college.  On 
October  15,  by  the  Archbishop's  order,  a  collection  was 
taken  up,  which  brought  the  sum  of  $1,400,  which  was 
spent  on  the  needed  furnishings  of  the  College. 

Four  students  were  selected  from  the  schools  of  the 
Christian  Brothers  in  Baltimore,  to  wit:  John  B.  Con- 
nolly, Michael  Dausch,  Joseph  Gross  and  William  Gar- 
vey.  On  the  eve  of  All  Saints'  day,  1848,  they  entered 
St.  Charles'  College,  led  by  their  new  president,  Father 
Jenkins,  and  accompanied  by  a  young  deacon  from  St. 
Mary's  Seminary,  Mr.  Edward  Caton.  The  record  does 
not  neglect  to  tell  us  that  they  brought  with  them  a  house- 
keeper to  provide  for  the  material  wants  of  the  faculty 
and  students.  At  night  the  first  meditation  was  held,  and 

1  This  fact  is  not  stated  in  the  documents,  but  it  follows  necessarily 
from  the  other  statements  made  therein.     According  to  the  charter  the 
president  was  appointed  to  office  by  the  trustees.     Now  according  to  the 
^Notice  sur  le  semincire  de  Baltimore,"   found  at  the  end   of  Gosselln  s 
"Vie  de  M.  Emery"   (p.  396),  the  trustees  had  not  held  a  single  meeting 
during  the  preceding  sixteen  years.     Father  Jenkins'  official  appointment 
could  not,  therefore,  have  been  made  prior  to  the  meeting  of  October  4, 
on  which  occasion  the  vacancies  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  were  filled. 

2  In    1848    there    were    six    parishes    in    the   city    of    Baltimore,    five   in 
Washington,  Georgetown,  and  Alexandria,  Virginia. 


THE    COLLEGE   OP   8T.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE         249 

Father  Jenkins'  diary  informs  us  that  this  brought  the 
inauguration  of  St.  Charles'  College  to  a  satisfactory 
close.  During  the  following  weeks  new  students  came  in 
one  by  one,  four  from  Washington,  four  from  Baltimore 
and  six  from  the  country  towns,  so  that  the  entire  diocese 
was  fairly  represented.  Before  the  end  of  the  year,  which 
was  satisfactorily  completed  in  July  with  simple  com- 
mencement exercises,  this  little  flock  had  been  reduced 
to  twelve. 

The  president  was  obviously  the  most  important  person 
in  the  embryo  college,  and  accordingly  he  deserves  our 
special  attention  as  being  practically  the  cornerstone  of 
the  new  institution.  Father  Oliver  L.  Jenkins  was  a 
Baltimorean  by  birth,  his  family  being  descended  from 
the  old  Catholic  settlers  in  the  Maryland  colony.  They 
were  prosperous  and  noted  for  their  loyalty  to  the  Catho- 
lic Faith.  Oliver  was  educated  at  St.  Mary's  College, 
where  he  graduated  with  distinction  at  the  age  of  eight- 
een, in  July,  1831.  His  first  preference  was  for  a  busi- 
ness life,  and  as  there  was  at  the  time  a  vacancy  in  the 
Union  Bank  of  his  native  city,  he  was  appointed  to  fill  it. 
He  was  a  successful  banker  from  1831  to  1841,  spending 
the  year  1837-38  in  European  travel.  However,  after  his 
return  his  mind  took  a  different  direction.  He  deter- 
mined to  become  a  priest  and  entered  St  Mary's  Semi- 
nary in  1841.  He  was  ordained  on  December  21,  1844, 
and  joined  the  Society  of  Si  Sulpice  in  1846,  teaching  at 
St.  Mary's  College  both  before  and  after  his  ordination. 

Father  Jenkins'  business  career,  however,  left  an  im- 
pression upon  his  character,  giving  him  a  positive  and 
practical  turn  of  mind  which,  joined  to  deep  piety  and 
great  charity,  made  him  an  ideal  president  of  St  Charles' 
College.  He  had  a  distinguished,  courtly  bearing  which, 
in  conjunction  with  his  positive  character,  stamped  his 
manner  with  the  impression  of  authority.  He  was  con- 


250  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

sequently  both  beloved  and  respected  as  the  president  of 
St.  Charles',  though  his  first  connection  with  the  college 
was  soon  interrupted.  He  and  Mr.  Caton  were  the  only 
teachers  of  the  young  flock,  but  there  was  plenty  of  work 
of  an  executive  nature  to  keep  him  busy,  and  the  former 
banker  showed  himself  a  vigorous  business  man.  Indeed, 
his  business  administration  of  St.  Charles'  was  so  suc- 
cessful that  it  caused  his  temporary  separation  from  the 
new  college  and  placed  him  at  the  head  of  old  St.  Mary's 
during  the  last  three  years  of  its  existence.  At  St. 
Charles',  which  was  in  its  infancy,  a  less  strenuous  head 
sufficed,  whereas  the  management  of  St.  Mary's,  which 
even  in  the  years  before  its  dissolution  counted  upwards 
of  a  hundred  students,  required  much  tact  and  firmness. 
Accordingly,  M.  Eaymond,  president  of  St.  Mary's,  who, 
although  a  very  attractive  man,  was  not  endowed  with  ex- 
ecutive gifts,  was  transferred  to  St.  Charles',  and  Father 
Jenkins  took  his  place  at  St.  Mary's.  But  M.  Raymond 
did  not  long  rule  St.  Charles',  for  in  1850  he  was  re- 
placed by  M.  Stanislas  Ferte,  a  native  of  the  diocese  of 
Beauvais,  where  he  was  born  on  August  30,  1821.  He 
was  ordained  in  1846,  being  thereupon  appointed  by  his 
bishop  professor  of  dogma.  Two  years  later  he  joined  the 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  made  his  novitiate  and  in  1849-50 
taught  philosophy  at  Issy. 

In  1852  Father  Jenkins  returned  to  St.  Charles'  and 
gave  himself  heart  and  soul  to  the  interests  of  the  insti- 
tution. To  it  he  devoted  not  only  the  best  part  of  his 
large  private  fortune,  but  all  the  powers  of  his  mind  and 
the  service  of  his  heart.  He  taught  there  for  seventeen 
years,  besides  watching  over  the  discipline  of  the  stu- 
dents. Naturally  his  business  training  had  not  made  him 
a  deep  and  varied  scholar,  but  he  was  an  excellent  mathe- 
matician, an  interested  student  of  English  literature,  and 
a  graceful  writer  of  vigorous  English.  As  he  considered 


THE    COLLEGE    OF    ST.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE         251 

that  the  current  histories  of  English  literature  did  not  do 
justice  to  Catholic  writers,  he  wrote  "The  Student's 
Handbook  of  British  and  American  Literature,"  which 
was  published  by  M.  Ferte  after  his  death,  its  merits  be- 
ing attested  by  the  eleven  editions  which  it  has  reached. 

As  a  disciplinarian,  Father  Jenkins  inspired  great  re- 
spect. He  was  energetic  and  forceful  in  the  maintenance 
of  order,  and  a  direction  once  given  was  rarely  withdrawn 
or  modified.  When  occasion  required  it,  he  became  em- 
phatic and  plain-spoken,  though  his  natural  earnestness 
usually  sufficed  to  secure  the  result  he  wished  to  achieve. 
In  some  respects  the  discipline  was  stricter  in  the  early 
days  of  the  college  than  it  is  at  present.  Father  Jenkins, 
for  instance,  strictly  banished  all  novels,  and  it  is  a  tra- 
dition that  no  such  unholy  book  crept  into  the  college  in 
his  day.1 

In  March,  1849,  St.  Charles'  College  numbered  twelve 
students.  Under  Father  Raymond  and  Father  Ferte  and 
up  to  1853,  eighty-one  students  had  been  registered,  of 
whom,  however,  only  forty-five  remained  in  July,  1853. 
The  first  class,  having  completed  their  six  years'  course, 
graduated  the  following  year  and  entered  the  seminary. 
They  were  only  four  in  number,  but  this  need  not  surprise 
us,  since  in  all  American  high  schools  we  find  the  same 
tale.  Rarely  do  25  per  cent  of  the  students  who  enter  a 
high  school  finish  their  course. 

During  the  first  four  years  all  the  students  of  St. 
Charles',  except  seven,  came  from  the  archdiocese  of  Bal- 
timore, but  the  following  year  we  find  that  the  college  at- 
tracted students  from  a  distance,  New  York  and  New 
England  contributing  not  a  few.  Indeed,  from  1854  a 
steady  stream  of  youthful  seminarians  came  from  the 
New  England  States,  a  phenomenon  that  continued  until 

iThe  oresent  writer  remembers  that  In  the  fifties  and  alxtiea  of  tb« 
nineteenth  century,  the  reading  of  romancea  waa  by  no  meane  encour- 
aged In  his  own  alma  mater. 


252  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  end  of  the  century.  In  1895,  for  instance,  New 
England  sent  fifty-nine  students,  while  Maryland  con- 
tributed only  thirty-one.  New  York  also  furnished,  at 
times,  a  large  contingent,  as  did  also  some  of  the  dioceses 
which  had  no  colleges  of  their  own.  New  Jersey,  in 
Bishop  Bayley's  time,  stood  sponsor  for  as  many  as  a 
dozen  seminarians.  St.  Charles'  never  received  many 
students  from  the  Southern  States,  probably  because  they 
had  few  candidates  for  the  priesthood,  as  was  natural 
in  view  of  the  weakness  of  the  Catholic  element  in  the 
population.  The  Middle- Western  and  Western  States  of 
the  Union  were  scantily  represented  on  St.  Charles'  regis- 
ter, doubtless  for  another  reason,  inasmuch  as  from  the 
days  of  Bishop  Flaget,  these  States  had  maintained  lower 
seminaries  of  their  own.  The  same  explanation  may  be 
given  for  parts  of  Pennsylvania,  though  now  and  then  as 
many  as  a  dozen  Pennsylvanians  were  matriculated  at  the 
same  time  at  St.  Charles'. 

If  we  inquire  to  whom  and  to  what  influence  St. 
Charles'  owes  the  large  number  of  students  it  has  al- 
ways received  from  dioceses  other  than  Baltimore,  we 
are  largely  reduced  to  conjecture.  No  doubt  the  excel- 
lence of  the  education  provided  for  the  students  by  the 
gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice  and  the  approval  of  the  special 
character  of  the  college  by  the  various  bishops  of  the  coun- 
try and  especially  of  the  New  England  States,  explain 
the  patronage  of  the  institution,  once  its  merits  had  be» 
come  known.  But  the  fact  that  this  patronage  began  so 
soon  after  the  opening  of  the  college,  may  perhaps  be 
ascribed  to  the  great  influence  and  popularity  of  Father 
Deluol.  He  was  a  universal  favorite  with  the  bishops 
and  priests  of  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States.  His  fre- 
quent journeys  northward,  even  as  far  as  Montreal,  on 
the  business  of  the  Seminary  and  of  Mother  Seton's  Sis- 
terhood, enabled  him  to  impress  bishops  and  clergy  with 


THE    COLLEGE    OP   ST.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE          253 

the  merits  of  his  Sulpician  confreres.  While  we  may  thus 
reasonably  credit  to  his  influence  the  success  of  St 
Charles'  even  after  he  had  returned  to  France,  we  shall 
not  go  wrong  in  attributing  it,  in  part,  to  the  energetic 
and  business-like  measures  of  Father  Jenkins. 

It  is  well  known  that  in  most  American  dioceses  the 
education  of  the  clergy  is  to  a  large  extent  provided  by  the- 
bishops,  the  priests  and  the  faithful  of  the  diocese,  though 
of  course  some  of  the  students  pay  for  their  own  educa- 
tion. Financial  considerations  had  always  been  a  grave 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  starting  a  lower  seminary,  but 
this  difficulty  was  triumphantly  overcome  at  St  Charles. 
The  history  of  the  college,  as  illustrated  by  a  single  yearr 
shows  that  about  26  per  cent  of  the  tuitions  are  paid  for 
by  the  bishops,  21  per  cent  by  clergymen,  41  per  cent  by 
the  students  or  their  parents,  7  per  cent  by  patrons  and 
3l/2  per  cent  by  scholarship  funds. 

The  yearly  tuition  fee  at  St  Charles'  was  at  first  $100: 
Some  ten  years  later,  it  was  found  necessary,  in  order  to- 
provide  for  the  expenses,  to  raise  the  amount  to  $140,  and 
in  the  seventies  it  was  raised  to  $180.  Concessions  were 
made,  however,  to  the  Baltimore  students  and  to  poor 
scholars.  Another  source  of  income  was  the  farm.  This 
consisted  at  first  of  about  240  acres,  which  was  gradually 
increased  till  it  measured  some  six  hundred  and  forty 
acres.  It  produced  all  the  vegetables  needed  for  the  college 
community,  besides  furnishing  the  meat  and  the  flour- 
Many  of  the  Sulpicians  took  great  pleasure  in  agriculture, 
and,  under  their  superintendence,  a  relatively  small  num- 
ber of  workmen  was  sufficient  to  take  care  of  the  farm. 
In  the  nineties,  the  value  of  the  farm  produce  was  set  down- 
at  $10,000. 

To  donations  also,  the  institution  owed  a  considerable 
sum,  always  bearing  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  middle  of 
last  century  was  not  the  era  of  millionaires.  A  competent 


254  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

judge  estimates  the  amount  of  the  donations  from  various 
sources  during  the  twenty  years  following  the  foundation 
of  the  college  at  $45,000,  while  the  donations  of  the 
president  alone  are  estimated  by  some  as  high  as  $70,000. 
The  principal  donors  were  Father  Jenkins,  Mr.  William 
Meredith,  Kev.  J.  J.  Hickey,  S.  S.,  Colonel  Drury,  Mrs. 
Harper,  a  member  of  the  Carroll  family,  Mr.  J.  Maes  and 
Father  J.  B.  Randanne,  S.S.  The  college  received  but 
little  aid  from  scholarships.  Among  the  contributors  to 
this  fund  we  record  M.  Ferte,  S.  S.,  and  Mr.  William 
Kennedy,  who  founded  the  first  two  scholarships. 

But  the  strictest  economy  on  the  part  of  the  managers 
and  the  admirable  spirit  of  sparing  and  assisting  the  Fa- 
thers, which  impelled  the  students  to  lend  their  helpful 
hands  on  all  occasions,  had  a  very  large  share  in  tiding 
over  the  early  days  of  the  institution.  Professors,  stu- 
dents and  servants  vied  with  one  another  in  doing  the 
farm  work.  There  are  still  alive  men  who  saw  the  stur- 
dier students  felling  trees,  sawing  and  splitting  seasoned 
logs  and  carrying  wood  during  the  winter.  In  favorable 
weather  in  the  spring  and  autumn,  the  entire  community 
might  have  been  seen  giving  their  holiday  afternoons  to 
planting  and  husking  corn,  gathering  hay,  or  binding  and 
stacking  sheaves  of  wheat.  No  sports  so  pleased  both 
young  and  old  as  this  farming  work,  which  was  usually 
rewarded  by  a  liberal  lunch  consisting  of  bread  and  mo- 
lasses. Of  course,  these  agricultural  occupations  ceased 
when  modern  labor-saving  inventions  made  the  boys'  help 
less  necessary,  and  the  romantic  heroism  of  the  primitive 
age  passed  away.  However,  the  teachers  were  the  great- 
est benefactors  of  the  institution.  As  members  of  the 
Society  of  St.  Sulpice  they  had  not  to  be  solicitous  for 
their  support  when  age  or  sickness  should  put  an  end 
to  their  labors,  and  while  they  were  able  to  work  they 
were  satisfied  with  food  and  raiment. 


THE    COLLEGE    OP    ST.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE         255 

The  number  of  students  attending  the  college  in  the 
semi-centennial  year  reached  225.  In  the  early  yean  of 
St.  Charles',  however,  the  capacity  of  the  buildings  largely 
influenced  the  number  of  the  students.  The  Jubilee  vol- 
ume published  in  1898  informs  us  that  forty-five  was  the 
largest  number  of  students  the  college  could  accommodate 
in  1853.  Two  years  later,  by  re-arranging  the  house  and 
adding  a  third  story,  it  afforded  room  for  seventy.  In 
1859,  by  lodging  some  of  the  students  in  the  summer 
residence  provided  for  the  seminarians  of  St.  Mary's, 
Baltimore,  St  Charles'  was  able  to  accommodate  102. 
In  1860,  notwithstanding  the  approach  of  the  Civil  War, 
the  trustees  resolved  to  enlarge  the  college.  The  new 
plan  conceived  the  college  originally  built,  which  had  a 
front  eighty  feet  long  and  sixty  feet  in  depth,  as  a  wing 
of  the  entire  edifice,  the  central  part  of  which  was  sixty- 
seven  feet  long  and  somewhat  higher  than  the  two  wings. 
Though  it  was  intended  to  erect  only  the  center  of  the 
edifice  at  this  time,  eventually  the  second  wing  was  added 
immediately  on  the  completion  of  the  center.  The  struc- 
ture being,  therefore,  almost  thrice  the  size  of  the  original 
building,  was  roomy  enough  for  the  needs  of  the  imme- 
diate future. 

In  1873,  under  the  Reverend  Stanislas  Ferte,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Father  Jenkins,  the  number  of  students  having 
exceeded  190,  further  extensions  were  resolved  upon  and 
begun.  However,  the  financial  storm  which  shook  the  en- 
tire country  towards  the  end  of  1873,  and  the  conse- 
quent diminution  in  the  number  of  students,  led  to  the 
postponement  of  building  operations.  They  were  resumed 
in  1876  under  the  Reverend  P.  P.  Denis,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Father  Ferte.  On  this  occasion,  the  structure  was 
both  enlarged  and  beautified,  and  St.  Charles'  presented 
an  architectural  whole  which  justified  the  admiration  of 
its  students  and  alumni.  Thenceforward  it  afforded  am- 


256  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

pie  room  for  250  students.  It  was  not  destined  to  af- 
ford hospitality  to  so  large  a  body  of  inmates,  however, 
though  their  number  kept  constantly  increasing  till  it 
reached  203  in  1911,  the  year  in  which  the  college  was 
destroyed  by  fire. 

Before  finishing  our  story  of  the  growth  of  the  college 
in  numbers  and  the  extent  of  its  buildings,  we  must  turn 
our  attention  to  its  chapel.  The  Sulpicians  have  always 
regarded  the  chapels  of  their  seminaries  as  an  important 
educational  element.  We  are  therefore  prepared  to  see 
them  devote  much  taste,  attention  and  money  to  the  chapel 
of  St.  Charles'  College.  The  original  chapel  was  but  a 
small  room  adjoining  the  entrance  in  the  building  erected 
in  1831,  and  served  not  only  as  a  chapel  for  the  boys  but 
also  as  the  meeting  place  on  Sundays  for  the  Catholics  liv- 
ing in  the  neighborhood.  In  1855,  when  other  provision 
had  been  made  for  the  external  congregation,  a  new  chapel 
for  the  students  was  opened  on  the  second  floor,  where 
Divine  worship  was  conducted  with  becoming  dignity  and 
impressiveness. 

But  Father  Jenkins,  whose  energy  and  enterprise 
planned  the  extension  of  the  college  in  1860,  did  not  for- 
get that  a  fine  chapel  should  be  the  most  striking  part  of 
a  Sulpician  college.  Accordingly,  he  called  upon  M.  Fail- 
Ion,  the  representative  of  the  French  superior-general,  a 
gentleman  who  had  a  great  reputation  for  architectural 
skill,  to  furnish  the  plans  for  the  new  edifice.  This 
turned  out  to  be  a  very  ambitious  addition  to  the  group 
of  college  buildings.  It  was  planned  in  imitation  of  the 
Sainte  Chapelle  at  Paris  and  was  a  building  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  feet  long,  thirty-four  feet  wide  and  fifty  feet 
high.  On  this  chapel,  Father  Jenkins  lavished  the  greater 
part  of  his  fortune.  From  the  beginning  of  St.  Charles', 
he  had  been,  next  to  Mr.  Carroll,  the  most  generous  sup- 


THE    COLLEGE    OP    ST.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE         257 

porter  of  the  institution,  but  his  heart  was  bound  up  more 
closely  with  the  chapel  than  with  any  other  part. 

Owing  to  the  high  cost  of  labor  and  materials  during  the 
Civil  War,  the  chapel  was  not  finished  until  1866,  but  its 
dedication  was  made  memorable  by  the  presence  of  Arch- 
bishop Spalding  and  a  large  assemblage  of  priests  from 
far  and  near.  Well  might  Father  Jenkins'  heart  be  filled 
with  pleasure  and  satisfaction  to  see  his  life-work  crowned 
by  so  noble  and  suitable  a  building  as  was  the  new  chapel, 
for  even  in  the  primitive  simplicity  which  characterized 
it  on  its  birthday,  it  challenged  the  admiration  of  the 
great  crowd  that  witnessed  its  dedication.  Successive  gen- 
erations of  old  students  and  friends,  among  them  all  the 
bishops  whom  St.  Charles'  College  had  given  to  the 
Church,  vied  with  one  another  in  beautifying  and  dec- 
orating the  home  of  their  youthful  studies,  which  had  pre- 
pared them  for  the  priesthood. 

The  retarding  of  the  building  operations  was  not  the 
only  drawback  which  the  college  suffered  from  the  Civil 
War,  which  for  a  time  threatened  the  prosperity  of  the 
institution.  In  1862,  the  number  of  applicants  for  en- 
trance fell  from  forty-five  to  twenty-five,  but  rapidly  re- 
covered so  as  to  amount  to  forty-two  in  the  following  year. 
Strange  to  say,  the  loss  affected  the  students  from  New 
England  proportionately  less  than  the  Maryland  stu- 
dents. In  1861-62,  only  three  applicants  matriculated 
from  the  diocese  of  Baltimore.  The  crisis  was  rapidly 
surmounted,  and  thenceforth  St.  Charles'  flourished  more 

and  more. 

The  course  of  studies  pursued  by  the  students  of  St 
Charles'  College  extended  over  six  years.  It  took  charge 
of  a  boy  at  the  end  of  his  grammar  school  studies  and 
fitted  him  for  entrance  into  the  seminary.  At  his  en- 
trance, therefore,  the  student  was  supposed  to  be  able  to 
read  and  write  and  to  know  the  elements  of  arithmetic. 


258  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  course  at  St.  Charles'  corresponded  in  a  general  way 
with  the  course  pursued  in  the  Jesuit  colleges  about  the 
middle  of  the  last  century  except  that,  to  this  six-year 
course,  the  Jesuit  colleges  added  a  year  of  philosophy  and 
somewhat  more  advanced  science.  The  catalogues  of  the 
college  do  not  indicate  the  distribution  of  the  time  among 
the  various  subjects  taught,  but  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  a 
large  proportion  of  it  was  awarded  to  the  classics,  besides 
which  the  course  embraced  algebra  and  geometry,  French 
and  English.  The  French  course  lasted  six  years  and  the 
boys  might  fairly  be  expected  to  master  the  French  lan- 
guage so  far  as  literary  reading  is  concerned.  Its  mer- 
its did  not  fall  below  those  of  American  non-Catholic  col- 
leges, but  were  probably  superior.  Much  attention  was 
given  to  English,  especially  to  practical  English  composi- 
tion. The  English  studies  included  a  course  of  history 
of  English  literature,  for  which  Father  Jenkins  wrote  the 
book  mentioned  above. 

The  mathematical  course  differed  but  little  from  that 
of  other  colleges,  the  Sulpicians  being  careful  not  to  neg- 
lect a  branch  which  they  had  especially  cultivated  since 
they  opened  their  first  collegiate  institution  at  St.  Mary's. 
The  classical  program  varied  most  from  that  of  the  typical 
American  high  school  and  college.  Of  course,  the  usual 
Latin  authors,  Phaedrus,  Csesar,  Cicero,  Ovid,  Livy,  Vir- 
gil, Horace  and  Tacitus,  were  the  backbone  of  the  course. 
To  these,  however,  were  added  Lactantius'  "De  Morte  Per- 
secutorum"  and  selections  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
which  gave  the  course  a  somewhat  religious  tone.  It 
should  be  remarked,  moreover,  that  great  emphasis  was 
laid  on  Latin  prose  composition,  i.  e.,  the  translation  of 
English  into  Latin,  and,  to  some  extent,  on  Latin  conver- 
sation. Similarly  in  Greek,  while  the  traditional  writers 
such  as  Xenophon,  Homer,  Plutarch  and  the  tragedians 
were  retained,  the  students  also  made  the  acquaintance  of 


THE    COLLEGE    OP    ST.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE         259 

0 

St.  Luke's  Gospel  and  the  discourses  of  St.  John  Chrysos- 
tom,  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen  and  St  Basil.  In  fact,  both 
in  the  classics  and  in  the  modern  languages,  stress  was 
laid  upon  the  great  orators.  Probably  this  had  in  view 
the  training  of  the  future  pulpit  orator. 

The  Greek  was  especially  strong  in  the  last  two  years, 
though,  as  it  is  possible  that  not  all  the  authors  in  the  cur- 
riculum were  taken,  but  only  a  selection  of  them,  the 
measure  of  Greek  in  the  usual  college  curriculum  may  not 
have  been  exceeded.  The  religious  instruction  consisted 
in  the  study  of  various  catechisms,  the  catechetical  form 
of  instruction  being  preferred  for  religious  studies  in  St. 
Charles',  as  it  is  in  most  Catholic  institutions.  In  the 
early  years  of  the  college,  Butler's  Catechism  was  the  only 
textbook  available;  this  was  later  replaced  by  Collot  and 
Deharbe.  'Recently  the  Catechism  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  in  the  original  Latin  has  been  used. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  preparatory  seminary,  not- 
withstanding its  significant  name,  was  not  overstocked 
with  religious  instruction,  as  many  non-Catholic  school- 
men suppose.  St.  Charles'  College,  though  a  lower  semi- 
nary, provided  for  its  students  a  complete  liberal  college 
education,  which  does  not  differ  substantially  from  that  of 
the  traditional  college.  This  is  true  not  only  as  far  as 
the  study  of  the  classical  languages  is  concerned,  but  also 
in  its  English  and  historical  departments.  The  study  of 
English  composition,  it  may  be  said,  was  always  a  prac- 
tical study  which  insisted  upon  the  students  frequently 
practising  English  composition  in  all  its  varieties.  While 
they  did  not  neglect  the  history  of  English  literature,  the 
Sulpicians  did  not,  on  the  other  hand,  lay  too  much  stress 
upon  the  history  of  the  English  classics,  as  is  often  done 
in  other  courses.  The  historical  program  awarded  much 
more  time  and  attention  to  Bible  history  than  is  custom- 
ary elsewhere.  In  the  later  years,  however,  the  usual 


260  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

historical  studies  were  taken  up  and  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  college  seem  to  suggest  no  special  features. 
As  a  whole,  the  program  of  studies  at  St.  Charles'  College 
entitled  it  to  be  classed  as  a  college  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word. 

From  the  curriculum,  we  turn  naturally  to  the  faculty 
of  the  college.  We  have  already  laid  before  our  readers 
the  life  of  its  first  president,  Father  Jenkins.  In  its  early 
days,  he  was  practically  the  entire  faculty  of  the  college 
and  his  influence  did  not  diminish  as  the  years  rolled  by 
and  the  college  increased  in  numbers  and  importance. 
Still,  as  it  grew,  the  faculty  grew  with  it,  and  the  stu- 
dents felt  more  and  more  the  influence  of  their  professors. 
The  peculiarly  Sulpician  character  of  the  institution  be- 
came more  pronounced  long  before  Father  Jenkins'  death. 
The  thoroughness  of  the  work  in  every  department,  the 
fidelity  of  the  professors  to  their  duties,  their  gentleman- 
liness,  their  sympathetic  attitude  and  their  dignified  com- 
radeship were  an  example  and  a  lesson  to  the  boys,  which 
taught  them  the  duty  of  work  and  the  right  manner  of 
working.  The  emphasis  which  their  teachers  laid  upon 
the  interior  life  suggested  the  combination  of  modesty  and 
efficiency,  while  the  honors  which  were  the  reward  of 
those  who  were  faithful  to  their  studies  guarded  them 
against  an  indolent  lack  of  interest.  The  man  who  in  the 
early  days  of  the  college  did  perhaps  more  than  any  one 
else  to  impress  this  spirit  upon  the  students,  was  Father 
Menu,  whose  combination  of  earnestness  and  kindness  the 
alumni  never  forgot.  On  hearing  of  his  death  in  1888, 
Cardinal  Gibbons  spoke  of  him  as  one  of  the  pillars  of  the 
college. 

Before  St.  Mary's  was  given  up,  and  even  afterwards, 
the  members  of  the  teaching  body  were  not  all  Sulpicians, 
Mr.  Caton,  who  at  first  was  Father  Jenkins'  only  assist- 
ant, being  a  student  from  the  seminary,  and  until  1852, 


THE    COLLEGE    OP   ST.    CHARLES,    BALTIMORE          261 

up  to  which  time  many  of  the  Sulpicians  were  needed  to 
teach  at  St.  Mary's  College,  not  a  few  seminarians  were 
drafted  to  teach  in  St.  Charles'.  It  even  happened  that 
secular  priests,  not  formally  connected  with  St  Sulpice, 
such  as  Father  Griffin,  were  a  part  of  the  faculty  for 
many  years.1  But  after  1852  the  number  of  laymen  in 
the  faculty  became  markedly  less  and  it  consisted  more 
and  more  of  Sulpicians. 

Many  Sulpicians  who  had  been  most  successful  teach- 
ers at  St.  Mary's  College,  taught  the  higher  classes  at  St 
Charles'.  Father  Randanne,  who  has  been  mentioned  as 
the  author  of  a  Latin  grammar,  long  taught  the  Latin 
classics  there.  The  historian  Fredet  also  lent  lustre  to  the 
faculty  of  the  new  college,  his  place  as  professor  of  his- 
tory being  taken  after  his  retirement  by  Rev.  A.  Vuibert, 
the  author  of  an  ancient  and  of  a  modern  history.  Some 
years  ago  he  became  the  first  president  of  a  lower  semi- 
nary in  Menlo  Park,  California.  Father  Rince,  though 
he  was  cut  off  by  a  premature  death,  had  published  a 
much  esteemed  edition  of  Ovid.  Among  the  early  lay 
instructors  who  later  became  priests  were  the  late  Thomas 
M.  A.  Burke,  for  many  years  Bishop  of  Albany,  and  the 
late  Archbishop  P.  I.  Chapelle  of  New  Orleans.  Many 
Sulpicians  associated  with  Father  Jenkins  in  the  faculty 
of  St.  Charles'  subsequently  distinguished  themselves  in 
other  Sulpician  institutions.  MM.  Ferte,  Guilbaud, 
Rince,  Dumont  and  Fonteneau  left  St.  Charles'  to  occupy 
chairs  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  while  MM.  Dumont  and 
Chapuis  were  transferred  to  the  Catholic  University 
Seminary.  The  following  gentlemen  were  successively 
promoted  to  the  presidency  of  St.  Charles'  College:  M. 
S.  H.  Ferte  (1850-52);  M.  P.  P.  Denis  (1876-86);  M. 

1  Rev.   H.   Grlffln   had   taught   for   twenty   years   in    St.   Mary'«   College 
when  he  became  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  St  Charles'. 


262  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Dumont  (1886-94) ;  M.  C.  B.  Rex  (1894-96)  ;  M.  C.  B. 
Schrantz  (1896-1905) ;  F.  X.  McKenny  (1905-13). 

By  the  terms  of  its  charter,  St.  Charles'  College  was  a 
lower  seminary  for  the  preparation  of  youths  intending 
to  devote  themselves  to  the  priesthood.  Its  graduates, 
therefore,  must  be  sought  for  principally  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Catholic  clergy,  primarily  of  the  diocese  of  Balti- 
more, but  also  in  many  other  dioceses  throughout  the 
United  States  and  even  Canada.  As  is  well  known,  how- 
ever, while  their  students  are  under  their  care,  the  gen- 
tlemen of  St.  Sulpice  watchfully  observe  them.  If  they 
become  convinced  that  a  student  does  not  promise  to  be- 
come a  worthy  shepherd  of  the  fold  of  Christ,  they  frankly 
inform  him  of  the  fact,  and  he  is  free  to  devote  himself 
to  another  profession.  Of  course,  if  the  student  him- 
self reaches  the  conclusion  that  the  ministry  is  not  the 
place  for  him,  no  obstacle  is  placed  in  the  way  of  his 
withdrawal.  The  number  of  such  withdrawals  is  by  no 
means  small,  and  proves  how  careful  the  Sulpicians  are, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  provide  the  Church  with  a  worthy 
clergy,  and,  on  the  other,  to  seek  the  happiness  of  their 
students  in  a  fitting  and  congenial  vocation. 

The  statistics  on  this  point  furnished  by  the  Jubilee 
volume  of  St.  Charles'  in  1898  are  not  only  interesting  but 
instructive.  We  learn  that  during  the  period  from  1848 
to  1888,  of  2,109  students  that  passed  through  the  institu- 
tion, 761,  or  36  per  cent,  were  promoted  to  the  priesthood. 
This  may  appear  a  small  percentage,  but  not  if  we  bear 
in  mind  that  in  a  six  years'  college  course  some  students 
die,  many  are  obliged  to  give  up  their  studies  because 
of  ill-health  or  in  order  to  assist  parents  who  require  their 
help,  and  that,  among  so  large  a  number  of  boys  entering 
the  college  at  the  age  of  thirteen  or  fourteen,  many  must 
naturally  find  that  they  have  not  the  taste  nor  talent  to 
warrant  their  continuing  the  experiment.  The  experi- 


THE    COLLEGE    OF   ST.    CHABLE8,    BALTIMORE          263 

ence  of  other  high  schools  and  colleges  teaches  that  the 
percentage  of  students  graduated  is  certainly  not  more 
than  one-half  of  those  who  began  their  academic  studies. 
The  efficiency  of  an  institution  can  be  best  tested  by  its 
fruits.     The  entire  Catholic  clergy  of  the  United  States 
constitute  a  body  respected  for  their  attention  to  duty, 
their  charity  and  their  labors  for  the  cause  of  social  prog- 
ress.   It  is  unnecessary  to  say  more  than  that  the  alumni 
of  the  Sulpicians  share  this  general  esteem.     That  they 
have  contributed  a  proportionate  share  of  the  men,  who, 
as  members  of  the  hierarchy,  have  been  called  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Catholic  Church,  its  annals  testify.     At 
the  head  of  this  picked  body  of  scholars  and  administra- 
tors, St.  Charles'  College  glories  in  its  own  favorite  son, 
the  present  archbishop  of  Baltimore.     Among  the  metro- 
politans, it  points  with  pride  to  Archbishops  William  H. 
Gross  of  Oregon  City,  J.  J.  Kain  of  St  Louis,  and  John 
J.  Keane  of  Dubuque;  and  among  the  bishops,  to  the 
Right  Reverend  P.  T.  O'Reilly  of  Springfield,  J.  O'Sul- 
livan  of  Mobile,   T.   M.   A.   Burke  of  Albany,   George 
Montgomery  of  San  Francisco,  and  John  J.  Monaghan  of 
Wilmington.    It  would  tire  the  patience  of  our  readers  to 
name  the  alumni  of  St.  Charles'  who  have  achieved  dis- 
tinction as  orators,  administrators  and,  above  all,  worthy 
shepherds  and  advisers  of  the  rich  and  the  poor. 

In  fact,  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  select  from  the 
thousands  of  names  of  worthy  priests  those  who  have 
eclipsed  their  fellow-clergymen.  Yet  we  cannot,  in  jus- 
tice to  the  college  and  to  its  students,  refrain  from 
mentioning  a  few,  at  the  same  time  begging  the  pardon  of 
perhaps  hundreds  who  may  be  equally  worthy  of  being 
recorded.  The  first  names  we  shall  mention  are  those  of 
two  Sulpicians,  the  Reverend  Charles  B.  Rex,  for  some 
years  the  beloved  president  of  the  college,  who  did  much 
to  extend  and  beautify  the  buildings,  and  the  Reverend 


264  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Edward  R.  Dyer,  who  has  been  the  successful  head  of  St. 
Mary's  Seminary  for  many  years.  Among  the  noted  ora- 
tors from  St.  Charles'  are  the  Eight  Reverend  Mgr.  Wil- 
liam T.  Russell,  of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  Washington,  D. 
C.,  the  Paulist,  Father  Bertrand  L.  Conway,  and  the  Sum- 
mer School  lecturer,  Father  Bernard  M.  Bogan.  The 
Reverend  Dr.  Edward  A.  Pace,  professor  of  philosophy  at 
the  Catholic  University  in  Washington,  is  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  scholars  whom  America  owes  to  St.  Charles'. 
The  Reverend  Dr.  Philip  J.  Garrigan,  after  rendering 
eminent  service  to  his  theological  alma  mater  at  Troy, 
was  appointed  vice-rector  of  the  Catholic  University  in 
Washington.  Since  then  he  has  been  promoted  to  the  see 
of  Sioux  City. 

In  1898  the  college  celebrated  the  fiftieth  year  of  its 
existence.  The  celebration  attracted  to  its  halls  the  Arch- 
bishops of  Baltimore,  many  bishops  and  a  little  army  of 
clerical  alumni  who  revived  the  exploits  of  their  youthful 
days  and  congratulated  one  another  on  the  distinction 
achieved  by  its  alumni  and  the  services  rendered  by  them 
to  the  Church  and  their  country.  Providence  had  des- 
tined that  this  should  be  the  last  great  gathering  of  the 
sons  of  St.  Charles'  at  its  old  home  near  Ellicott  City. 
A  few  years  later,  on  March  16,  1911,  a  fire  destroyed 
the  old  college,  hallowed  by  the  memories  of  Father  Jen- 
kins and  so  many  of  his  worthy  coadjutors.  But  this  dis- 
aster was  but  the  occasion  of  fresh  effort  and  of  greater 
success.  A  new  and  more  beautiful  college,  in  a  more 
convenient  position  at  Catonsville,  has  taken  the  place  of 
the  buildings  consecrated  by  the  success  of  more  than  fifty 
years  and  bids  fair  to  scatter  blessings  a  hundredfold  over 
the  diocese  of  Baltimore  and  the  United  States.1 

1  See  In  Appendix  the  tribute  of  Cardinal  Gibbons  to  the  character 
of  the  training  given  by  St.  Charles'  College. 


CHAPEL  OF  OfR  LADY  OF  THI   AM;F.I.S. 
Old  St.  Charles. 


CHAPTE*  XII 

SULPICIAN    MiSSIONABY    BlSHOPS 

Simon  Gabriel  Brute         John  Joseph  Chanche 

Samuel  Eccleston  Guy  Ignatius  Chabrat 

Augustine  Verot 

In  Chapter  VII  has  been  told  the  story  of  the  early 
Sulpician  missionaries  from  Bishop  Flaget  to  Archbishop 
Marechal.  The  first  Council  of  Baltimore  (1829)  had 
inaugurated  the  systematic  development  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  the  United  States,  and  the  work  was  under 
way  at  the  death  of  Archbishop  Marechal  in  1828.  The 
episcopate  had  been  organized  so  as  to  provide  a  regular 
government  for  the  Church  in  all  its  parts ;  its  clergy  had 
been  multiplied  and,  while  still  leaving  room  for  mission- 
ary effort,  had  for  the  most  part  become  a  permanent 
force  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  country.  The 
principles  according  to  which  the  bishops  and  the  pastors 
were  to  be  selected  had  been  at  least  provisionally  settled 
at  Rome,  and  the  seminaries  and  colleges  required  for  the 
Church's  development  and  propagation  had  been  estab- 
lished where  they  were  most  vitally  needed. 

The  native  priesthood  which  Archbishop  Carroll,  M. 
Emery  and  the  Sulpician  founders  of  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary at  Baltimore  regarded  as  the  most  essential  need  of 
the  infant  American  Church,  and  for  which  they  had 
prayed  and  worked  so  earnestly,  promised  a  supply  of  en- 
ergetic and  wise  bishops.  The  Society  of  St  Sulpice  had 
from  its  foundation  disapproved  of  the  promotion  of  its 
members  to  the  episcopate,  but  the  rules  and  interests  of 

265 


266  jTHE    SULPICIAN8    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  company  had  been  subordinated  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  period  and,  up  to  1830,  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  had 
furnished  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  American 
bishops. 

The  Society  of  St.  Sulpice,  both  in  France  and  in  the 
United  States,  worked  with  singular  consistency  and  per- 
sistency for  what  they  considered  the  essential  purpose 
and  end  of  their  Company,  and  gradually  they  resigned 
to  other  hands  the  care  of  the  colleges  they  had  founded, 
the  convents  they  had  helped  to  establish,  the  parishes 
they  had  organized,  withdrawing  more  and  more  to  the  re- 
tirement of  their  class-rooms.  Moreover,  the  individual 
Sulpicians  had  always  shrunk  from  the  dignities  of  the 
episcopate.  From  Flaget  to  Marechal  they  had  striven 
to  escape  its  burdens  and,  as  far  as  was  consistent  with 
obedience,  resisted  the  Roman  bulls  placing  that  burden 
upon  their  shoulders.  The  bishops  who  were  taken 
from  the  ranks  of  the  Company  after  1830  were  as 
loyal  to  the  principles  of  their  founder  as  were  Flaget  and 
Marechal,  but  like  them,  they  were  forced  to  yield  to  the 
Roman  pontiffs,  who  wisely  saw  in  them  the  very  men 
demanded  by  the  special  needs  of  some  dioceses.  Their 
mission,  however,  was  gradually  changed  and  while  their 
predecessors  travelled  thousands  of  miles  to  perform  their 
episcopal  functions,  the  new  generation  of  prelates  trav- 
elled merely  hundreds.  The  Indians  had  been  gradually 
driven  to  the  West.  In  fact,  the  dioceses  governed  by 
the  later  Sulpician  bishops  were  normal  in  their  organi- 
zation and  in  their  demands  upon  their  chief  pastors. 
Gradually  the  number  of  Sulpician  bishops  became  pro- 
portionately fewer  and  when,  in  1848,  the  Company  of  St. 
Sulpice  had  re-established  itself  in  the  form  conceived  by 
MM.  Olier  and  Emery  and  devoted  itself  exclusively  to 
the  training  of  priests  and  bishops,  its  members  ceased 
to  fill  the  sees  of  the  country  and  were  content  to  prepare 


subject  of  the  p  ntl'hT  "^  P"*""1*  i 
Simon  Gabriel  CT  1  1  ^  '°  the  8ame  cl»«- 
-  bom  at  Bennes?nd  wt  tbe^r  f  ?u0f  Vine""* 
Sulpician  confreres,  a  naZ  Of  K  '  **  "**'  °f  his 
«ho  had  had  chargl  Of  £  'O'  B.ntto»*  Hi.  fa,her, 
had  died  in  Simon's  chidhldH  ^  "  Bri'tan-T' 

»P  bj  his  mother,  a  worn  cL  T"'  therefore  bro"ght 
•elf  to  the  bo/8  educTo  °^aracter'  wh»  ^'oted  her- 
i-ry  studies^  his  nat  ve'  to'^  I  ^"^  ^  Prelin" 
t«  the  po.vtechnic  35  wh7n  theT  'TS"  '°  e- 
«pset  his  plans.  His  mothe,  °h  Revolu«''on 

ing  office  and  vonngZ   ^ml      '^ 
his  improved  fort,L  Tnlb^m  N^ 
Eennes,  whence  he  proceeded  to  Paris     Tn99 
graduated  in  1803   takino.  th»  fi 
of  a  thousand  eompVtitT  Pme  am°n 


was 


di-tor  in  the  seminar,  of 


, 
gaged  ,n  th.s  work  (1810),  he  me,  Bishop'  F,^,    who 


268  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

was  seeking  recruits  for  the  American  mission.  Inas- 
much as  M.  Brute  had  already  had  his  thoughts  turned 
in  this  direction,  and  as  Napoleon  was  on  the  point  of  sup- 
pressing the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice,  he  determined  to 
follow  Bishop  Flaget's  suggestion,  and,  with  the  consent  of 
his  superiors,  he  left  for  the  United  States  and  landed  at 
Baltimore  in  the  same  year. 

He  did  not  remain  idle  very  long,  being  entrusted  with 
a  professorship  of  philosophy  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary, 
which  he  filled  for  two  years.  Then  he  was  called  to  Em- 
mitsburg  to  teach,  to  do  missionary  work  and  to  assist 
Mother  Seton  in  laying  the  foundation  of  her  Sisterhood, 
to  promote  which  he  used  his  utmost  efforts.  However,  he 
did  not  lose  his  interest  in  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore. 
During  his  student  years  and  those  of  his  professorship 
in  France  his  scholarly  instincts  had  led  him  to  accumu- 
late a  large  theological  and  scientific  library,  numbering 
5,000  volumes,  a  very  large  collection  of  books  one  hundred 
years  ago.  This  collection  he  took  with  him  to  the  United 
States  and  after  leaving  it  for  a  time  at  St.  Mary's  Semi- 
nary, took  it  with  him  to  Mt.  St.  Mary's  and  later  to 
Vincennes.  On  his  return  to  Baltimore,  he  was  named 
president  of  St.  Mary's  College,  but  his  health,  which  was 
never  very  robust,  soon  brought  him  back  to  Emmitsburg, 
where  he  was  pastor  of  the  congregation  and  chaplain  of 
the  Sisters  of  Charity,  besides  gradually  taking  upon  his 
shoulders  the  duties  of  a  whole  theological  and  scientific 
faculty.  He  lectured  on  the  Sacred  Scriptures  and  taught 
philosophy  and  ethics  in  the  seminary,  as  well  as  the  nat- 
ural sciences  in  the  college. 

When  in  1826  Mount  St.  Mary's  was  separated  from 
St.  Sulpice  and  M.  Dubois  became  Bishop  of  New  York, 
M.  Brute  remained  at  Emmitsburg  and  continued  to  in- 
struct the  seminarians  and  advise  the  Sisters  of  Charity. 
His  fame  as  a  sound  authority  on  every  branch  of  theology 


RT.  RKV.  SIMON  GAIIIMKL  Hurrfi. 
First    Hi.shop  of   VinroniH's. 


BULPICIAN    MISSION  AST    BISHOPS  269 

and  science  had  become  nation-wide.  He  was  consulted 
as  an  oracle  by  the  bishops  of  the  United  States,  many  of 
whom  had  sat  at  his  feet  as  students.  In  fact,  during 
these  years  he  was,  if  possible,  more  than  ever  true  to 
Sulpician  ideals.  In  1833  the  second  Council  of  Balti- 
more took  place  and  proposed  to  Rome  the  creation  of  sev- 
eral new  bishoprics,  among  them  that  of  Vincennes,  which 
was  to  include  the  State  of  Indiana  and  the  greater  part 
of  Illinois.  When  the  American  bishops  looked  around 
for  the  fittest  man  to  fill  the  see,  they  unanimously  named 
the  learned  professor  of  Emmitsburg.  But  M.  Brute  had 
the  true  Sulpician  aversion  to  a  miter.  He  made  a  re- 
treat among  his  old  confreres  of  St.  Sulpice  and  care- 
fully set  down  all  his  reasons  for  not  accepting  the  prof- 
fered dignity.  At  last,  he  submitted  the  question  to  his 
friend,  Bishop  Flaget.  That  wise  counselor  decided  that 
M.  Brute  was  just  the  man  for  Vincennes,  and  the  learned 
scholar  of  Mt.  St.  Mary's  thereupon  assumed  the  direction 
of  the  flock  in  what  was  at  that  time  a  part  of  the  wild 
West. 

Like  Bishop  Flaget  when  he  wished  to  start  for  Bards- 
town,  M.  Brute  had  not  the  means  to  pay  for  the  jour- 
ney to  his  diocese,  but  at  last  the  Sisters  of  Charity  came 
to  his  aid  and  gave  him  $200.  He  was  consecrated  by 
Bishop  Flaget  in  the  new  cathedral  of  St.  Louis  on  Oc- 
tober 28,  1834.  The  Catholics  of  his  episcopal  city,  as 
well  as  those  of  his  entire  diocese,  gave  him  a  royal  wel- 
come, and  before  long  Bishop  Brute  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  men  in  the  States  of  Illinois  and  Indiana.  One 
of  his  first  thoughts  was  to  establish  a  diocesan  seminary, 
and  so  strong  was  the  old  Sulpician  within  him,  that  when 
he  was  able  to  realize  this  project  he  took  great  delight  in 
acting  as  professor. 

But  we  can  give  no  better  account  of  Bishop  Brute's  ac- 
tivity and  no  better  description  of  the  condition  of  a  west- 


270 

ern  diocese  in  the  early  thirties  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, than  by  citing  a  letter  dated  November  25,  1835, 
from  the  bishop  to  the  editor  of  the  "Annals  of  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Faith."  *• 

".  .  .  .  After  the  departure  of  the  bishops,  I  visited 
several  portions  of  my  diocese  and  blessed  a  new  plain 
frame  church  in  a  village  where  I  found  150  Catholic 
families.  I  placed  them  under  the  invocation  of  tha 
Blessed  Virgin.  I  then  returned  to  Vincennes,  where  I 
stayed  for  eight  months  until  I  left  for  France.  I  was 
therefore  the  pastor  in  a  double  sense,  for  I  performed  all 
the  marriages  and  funerals  in  person;  in  a  word,  attend- 
ing to  all  the  duties  of  a  parish  priest.  I  had  found  there 
as  a  cathedral  a  sufficiently  large  building  115  x  60  feet, 
but  absolutely  bare;  it  had  not  even  been  plastered.  A 
poor  wooden  altar  with  six  candlesticks  and  a  crucifix,  a 
gift  coming  from  France,  were  the  entire  furniture  of 
the  church.  I  put  into  it  a  small  painting  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  eight  inches  high,  to  prove  that  he  was  the  patron 
of  the  church,  and  on  the  walls  I  placed  two  pictures,  one 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the  other  of  St.  Joseph,  to  mark 
the  spot  where  I  intend  later  on  to  place  the  two  altars. 
On  Sundays  I  officiated  in  this  church  alone  in  the  sanc- 
tuary with  some  altar  boys  dressed  in  ragged  surplices. 
A  Canadian  schoolmaster  together  with  a  few  inhabitants 
of  the  town  helped  to  sing  parts  of  the  Mass.  On  Christ- 
mas, on  Easter  day  and  Whitsunday,  I  thought  I  was 
obliged  to  celebrate  pontifical  High  Mass.  Then  I  went 
to  the  altar  with  crozier,  miter  and  cope ;  I  placed  in  read- 
iness near  a  throne  covered  with  a  beautiful  borrowed  rug 
both  my  crozier  and  my  miter.  I  put  the  latter  on  and 
took  it  off  myself. 

i  "Bulletin  Trimestriel,"  pt.  VIII,  p.  226. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  271 

"On  my  arrival  I  published  a  pastoral  letter  in  English. 
I  placed  the  diocese  under  the  protection  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  and  speaking  to  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike,  I 
tried  to  make  them  understand  the  great  favor  heaven 
granted  them  in  permitting  the  establishment  of  a  new 
see.  This  letter  was,  for  the  most  part,  well  received.  I 
explained  it  in  French  from  the  pulpit,  and  I  saw  my 
hearers  alive  to  the  hopes  which  I  made  them  entertain. 
It  is  sad  to  think  that  of  all  this  old  French  population 
of  Vincennes,  only  a  few  persons  can  read;  English  is 
almost  the  universal  language,  except  in  some  parts  of 
the  diocese  where  the  Germans  are  quite  numerous  and 
need  priests  that  can  understand  them. 

"At  the  time  of  my  consecration,  I  had  only  two 
priests;  at  present  I  have  four,  viz.,  M.  Ruff  of  the  dio- 
cese of  Metz;  M.  Ferneding,  whom  Bishop  Flaget  was 
kind  enough  to  loan  me  for  the  Germans  of  the  Southeast 
near  the  border  of  Ohio;  M.  Lalumiere,  a  native  of  Vin- 
cennes and  the  first  priest  of  Indiana  who  was  ordained  by 
the  Bishop  of  Bardstown.  The  fourth  was  sent  to  me  by 
the  Propaganda.  He  was  about  to  arrive  when  I  left. 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him  on  the  way.  He  is  now 
officiating  at  Vincennes.  Mgr.  Rosati  has  also  consented 
to  send  for  the  time  M.  St.  Cyr,  a  native  of  Lyons,  to  Chi- 
cago on  Lake  Michigan,  whom  he  had  recalled  at  the 
time  I  was  consecrated. 

"When  I  departed,  these  four  priests  whom  I  have  just 
mentioned  were  stationed  at  the  four  ends  of  the  compMi 
of  a  territory  that  in  extent  is  equal  to  almost  one-third 
of  France.  Except  M.  Lalumiere,  stationed  eight  or  nine 
leagues  from  Vincennes,  all  the  others  reside  fifty  to  sixty- 
five  leagues  away.  Moreover,  each  of  them  travels  con- 
siderable distances  from  his  station  in  order  to  visit  the 
scattered  Catholics.  So  it  happens  that  some  of  them  pass 
a  month  without  being  able  to  communicate  with  their  con- 


272  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

freres  and  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  trials  they  have  to 
bear.  But  I  hope  that  soon  some  good  priests  stationed 
at  intermediate  places  will  make  their  intercourse  more 
frequent. 

"The  care  of  the  young  was  one  of  the  first  objects  of 
my  solicitude.  I  found  that  First  Communions  had  been 
greatly  neglected.  At  Christmas  I  had  the  consolation 
of  seeing  twenty  young  people  make  their  First  Com- 
munion and  at  Easter,  sixty.  A  great  part  of  the  First 
Communicants  were  eighteen  to  twenty  years  old.  I  in- 
structed them  as  well  as  my  many  occupations  and  the  sick 
calls  allowed.  These  sometimes  took  me  several  leagues 
from  home.  I  thought  I  noticed  considerable  talent  in 
some  of  these  youths,  which  made  me  regret  that  I  had 
no  college  to  test  their  fitness  and  their  inclination  for 
the  holy  priesthood.  It  must  be  my  first  endeavor  to  pre- 
pare young  men  for  the  clergy.  But,  of  course,  several 
years  must  pass  before  I  can  have  native  priests.  Mean- 
while, and  even  to  educate  these  young  Levites,  I  must 
have  candidates  and  I  can  look  for  them  only  in  the  old 
dioceses.  May  the  Lord  inspire  several  young  men  with 
this  grand  and  holy  vocation. 

"To  inquiries  about  the  number  of  Catholics  in  my  dio- 
cese I  find  it  difficult  to  reply-  I  do  not  think  there  are 
less  than  25,000,  but  I  cannot  state  any  precise  figures. 
The  population  of  Indiana,  which  in  1800  numbered 
4,800,  at  present  exceeds  500,000.  In  the  part  of  Illinois 
which  belongs  to  my  diocese,  80,000  is  supposed  to  be  the 
number.  This  population  is  spread  over  6,000  square 
leagues.  The  Catholics  are  dispersed  here  and  there  in 
groups  more  or  less  considerable.  Their  scattered  condi- 
tion forbids  my  guessing  their  number.  Irish  immigrants 
at  the  beginning,  and  of  late  years  Bavarians,  formed  the 
majority  of  the  Catholic  population  here.  But  what  is 
most  sad  is,  that  in  their  scattered  condition,  their  salva- 


SUUICIAW    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  273 

tion  is  greatly  endangered  and  even  in  case  of  sickness,  the 
consolations  of  religion  are  obtained  with  difficulty. 

"In  general  the  immigrants  here  keep  their  faith.  The 
lack  of  all  faith  becomes  too  striking  in  the  midst  of  the 
many  sects  that  are  busy  in  the  United  States,  not  to  in- 
spire contempt  for  infidels.  But  as  they  are  so  rarely 
visited  by  the  missionaries,  some  remain  Catholics  only 
in  name.  They  yield  to  bad  example  and  surrender  to  a 
culpable  indifference  and  their  children  whom  they  do  not 
instruct  end  by  becoming  the  prey  of  the  sectaries  who 
offer  them  a  thousand  temptations. 

"From  Vincennes,  I  was  often  obliged  to  travel  great 
distances.  So  that  when  I  tell  you  that  in  eight  months, 
besides  my  manifold  duties,  I  have  been  obliged  to  travel 
more  than  one  hundred  leagues  on  horseback,  this  estimate, 
which  may  seem  exaggerated,  is  really  below  the  truth.  A 
single  trip  which  I  undertook  to  visit  distant  Chicago,  the 
Indians  of  M.  Badin  and  those  of  the  Tippecanoe  River, 
extended  over  two  hundred  leagues.  Luckily  I  have  re- 
covered my  skill  in  horse  riding  to  an  extent  that  I  did 
not  look  for.  Besides,  the  still  longer  trips  of  our  older 
missionaries,  stationed  at  the  present  time  at  various 
points  of  the  country,  forbid  me  to  complain  of  this  duty 
which  is  made  necessary  by  the  nature  of  the  country 
where  everything  must  be  created  in  order  to  give  it  to  the 
Church. 

"Since  I  have  mentioned  the  Indians,  I  must  say  a  few 
words  about  them.  I  visited  those  of  the  village  of  Poke- 
gan  near  the  confines  of  my  diocese,  which  belongs  to  the 
diocese  of  Detroit,  though  a  part  of  the  inhabitants  re- 
side in  Indiana,  then  the  Indians  of  the  village  of  Chit- 
chakos  near  the  Tippecanoe  River,  twenty-five  leagues 
south  of  the  former.  In  the  latter  place  I  gave  Confirma- 
tion to  sixty  Redskins. 

"I  was  moved  by  the  piety  and  recollection  of  these 


274  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Indians.  They  pray  with  wonderful  fervor  and  reproach 
themselves  for  the  least  distraction.  They  have  printed 
books  in  the  Ottawa  language,  containing  prayers,  a  cate- 
chism and  hymns.  They  readily  learn  how  to  read  and 
several  know  all  of  these  books  by  heart.  You  must  not 
infer  hence  that  it  is  easy  to  civilize  them.  M.  Desseille, 
a  Flemish  priest  of  the  diocese  of  Detroit,  who  has  just 
visited  the  village  of  Pokegan,  where  he  resides,  and 
who  is  very  much  attached  to  them,  believes  it  would  be 
very  difficult  to  teach  them  farming,  but  he  thinks  that  it 
would  be  easier  to  teach  them  herding.  .  .  .  The  policy 
of  the  United  States  is  known  to  exclude  from  all  civilized 
states  and  to  send  beyond  the  Mississippi  all  the  savages, 
a  policy  which  drives  the  Indians  to  despair.  The  num- 
ber of  Indians  in  Indiana  is  estimated  at  4,000.  During 
my  stay  in  the  village  of  Chitchakos  the  good  Indians, 
delighted  to  see  the  great  prayer  chief  in  the  midst  of 
them,  wished  to  give  him  a  mark  of  regard  and  at  the 
same  time  so  far  as  possible  to  secure  for  themselves  the 
help  of  religion.  They  met  in  council ;  then  in  the  name 
of  all,  their  chief  Chitchakos  l  offered  in  a  speech  full  of 
kind  sentiment  a  site  for  a  church  and  320  acres  for  a 
school." 

Having  closely  surveyed  his  diocese  and  studied  its 
needs,  Bishop  Brute,  in  1835,  sailed  for  France,  where 
he  asked  help  of  his  friends.  To  the  Society  for  the  Prop- 
agation of  the  Faith  he  appealed  for  financial  assistance, 
which  was  granted  him,  and  to  secure  clerical  help  he 
made  a  tour  of  some  of  the  French  seminaries.  At  the 
same  time,  he  paid  his  ad  limina  visit  to  the  Holy  City, 
and  was  everywhere  received  with  the  greatest  good  will 
and  honor.  He  brought  back  with  him  to  Vincennes 
twenty  priests  and  seminarians  who  had  volunteered  to 

1  He  was  a  Pottowatomie  chief. 


SULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  275 

join  him.  He  was  welcomed  home  enthusiastically  by 
both  Catholics  and  non-Catholics  and  proceeded  at  once  to 
use  his  European  alms  to  the  best  advantage. 

His  first  care  was  to  establish  a  diocesan  seminary, 
some  of  the  students  for  which  he  had  brought  back  with 
him.  An  asylum  next  provided  for  the  little  orphans  of 
his  flock,  and  a  free  high  school  supplied  the  means  neces- 
sary for  the  future  aspirants  to  the  priesthood.  He  com- 
pleted and  adorned  his  cathedral  and  erected  simple  but 
adequate  churches  in  many  towns  of  the  state.  Having 
again  visited  the  parishes  of  his  diocese,  he  settled  down 
in  his  see,  resuming  his  old  occupation  of  professor  of 
theology  at  the  seminary,  and  writing  every  second  week 
to  his  parish  priests  to  encourage  and  direct  them.  On 
Saturdays  he  heard  confessions  and  was  ever  at  the  call 
of  the  sick  and  dying.  Not  satisfied  with  this  episcopal 
and  pastoral  activity,  he  contributed  to  the  "Catholic 
Telegraph"  of  Cincinnati  a  series  of  articles  on  the  early 
history  of  his  diocese.  In  short,  he  was  an  indefatigable 
worker  in  the  Lord's  vineyard. 

Amid  all  this  work  for  his  regular  flock,  he  did  not  for- 
get the  poor  Indians,  the  faithful  Pottowatoraies  who,  at 
the  beginning  of  his  episcopate,  had  so  generously  given 
him  the  site  for  a  Catholic  church  and  school.  The  de- 
cree of  Congress  forced  them  to  emigrate  against  their 
will  to  the  Indian  Territory,  and  Bishop  Brute  had  sent 
Father  Petit  to  accompany  them  for  500  miles,  to  con- 
sole them  and  assist  them  to  found  their  new  homes.  At 
the  same  time,  however,  he  was  actively  visiting  various 
parts  of  his  diocese,  although  they  were  ravaged  by  cholera 
and  other  contagious  diseases.  The  bishop  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  bring  the  last  consolations  of  religion  to  the  stricken 
sufferers,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  since  his  Euro- 
pean journey  his  health  had  been  far  from  robust 

In  the  winter  of  1837  he  set  out  to  attend  the  Third 


276  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Council  of  Baltimore.  He  travelled  on  an  old-fashioned 
stage  and  was  seated  in  front  of  the  vehicle  near  the 
driver,  exposed  to  the  winds  and  the  weather.  Here  he 
contracted  a  cold,  which  gradually  developed  into  con- 
sumption. But  even  when  his  strength  was  ebbing  and 
his  body  was  wracked  by  disease  he  continued  to  visit  the 
sick  and  to  give  them  the  last  sacraments.  It  is  recorded 
that  after  he  was  infected  by  the  disease  which  proved 
fatal,  he  travelled  four  hundred  miles,  visiting  various 
parts  of  his  diocese.  An  apostle  of  charity  to  the  last,  he 
made  sick  calls  when  in  fact  he  was  more  ill  than  the 
sufferers  he  visited,  and  when  confined  to  his  home  he 
used  his  pen  to  appeal  to  persons  who  had  given  up  the 
practice  of  their  religious  duties.  At  last,  having  given 
to  all  an  example  of  Christian  faith,  charity  and  patience, 
he  slept  in  the  Lord  on  June  26,  1839,  at  the  age  of  sixty 
years. 

Bishop  Brute's  extraordinary  activity  may  be  gauged 
in  part  by  the  material  results  of  his  five  years'  episco- 
pate. When  he  went  to  Vincennes  to  assume  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  diocese,  he  found  one  priest  to  help  him.  In 
the  year  after  his  arrival  the  diocese  is  credited  with 
three  churches,  six  stations  and  two  priests.  In  1839, 
when  he  had  been  bishop  less  than  five  years,  his  diocese 
numbered  twenty-three  priests,  twenty-three  churches, 
forty-eight  stations,  one  seminary  with  twenty  clerical  stu- 
dents, one  college,  one  girls'  school,  one  convent  and  two 
charitable  institutions. 


II. — MOST  REVEREND  SAMUEL  ECCLESTON, 
ARCHBISHOP  OF  BALTIMORE 

The  fifth  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  Samuel  Eccleston, 
was  the  first  native  American  member  of  the  Society  of 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  277 

St.  Sulpice  raised  to  the  episcopal  dignity.  He  was  of 
English  extraction  and  a  convert  to  the  Catholic  Church. 
He  was  born  in  1801  in  Kent  County,  Maryland,  where 
his  grandfather,  a  gentleman  of  good  English  family,  had 
settled.  The  archbishop's  father  died  when  Samuel  was 
but  a  boy,  and  his  widow  afterwards  married  a  Catholic 
gentleman  named  Stenson,  which  marriage  was  followed 
by  her  conversion.  When  Samuel  was  sent  to  St  Mary's 
College  he  was  still  a  Protestant,  but  during  his  residence 
at  the  college  he  became  convinced  of  the  claims  of  the 
Catholic  Church  to  be  the  only  true  Church,  and  accord- 
ingly he  acted  on  this  conviction. 

As  a  student,  Samuel  Eccleston  displayed  talents  of 
an  unusual  order,  especially  as  an  orator,  and  even  before 
his  graduation  he  represented  his  fellow-students  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  and  other  occasions.  At  the  same  time, 
he  was  a  youth  of  extraordinary  piety.  It  was  not  sur- 
prising, therefore,  when,  at  the  end  of  his  college  course, 
he  entered  the  seminary,  where  he  was  ordained  in  1825. 
He  then  applied  to  be  admitted  into  the  Society  of  St. 
Sulpice  and  went  to  France  to  make  his  novitiate  in  the 
Solitude  at  Issy.  Returned  thence  in  1827,  he  was 
forthwith  charged  with  the  vice-presidency  of  St.  Mary's 
College,  where  he  proved  himself  as  able  a  disciplinarian 
as  he  was  a  scholar  and  instructor. 

His  success  led  to  his  being  named  president  of  the 
college  in  1829.  As  such,  he  gained  the  confidence  not 
only  of  his  fellow  Sulpicians,  but  also  of  Archbishop 
Whitfield,  who,  when  his  health  failed  and  he  felt  that 
the  end  of  his  life  was  near,  looked  around  for  the  man 
best  fitted  to  be  his  successor,  and  was  before  long  con- 
vinced that  the  young  president  of  St.  Mary's  College 
was  the  man.  This  was  not  his  opinion  only,  but  that  of 
most  of  the  other  American  bishops,  notwithstanding  the 
extreme  youth  of  Father  Eccleston,  who  was  then  only 


278  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

thirty-three  years  old.  The  insistence  of  all  his  clerical 
superiors  overcame  the  candidate's  reluctance  to  accept 
the  new  dignity,  and  on  September  14,  1834,  he  was  con- 
secrated coadjutor  to  Bishop  Whitfield,  with  the  title  of 
Bishop  of  Thermias.  The  death  only  a  month  after  of 
Mgr.  Whitfield  made  him  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  and 
in  November,  1835,  the  arrival  of  the  pallium  from  Rome 
clothed  him  with  all  the  powers  of  the  metropolitan. 

The  new  prelate  was  a  very  pious  man,  determined  to 
do  his  duty  to  the  full,  looking  about  everywhere  for 
the  interests  of  religion  and  anxious  to  act  in  the  spirit 
of  the  Church  in  all  things.  Archbishop  Whitfield 
had  been  an  invalid  for  some  time  before  his  death  and 
thus  unable  to  perform  those  duties  of  his  office  which 
would  have  required  him  to  leave  his  home.  The  new 
archbishop  lost  no  time,  but  set  forth  at  once  to  admin- 
ister confirmation  in  his  own  diocese  and  that  of  Rich- 
mond. It  was  said  that  before  his  death  there  was  not 
a  place  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  no  matter  how  small 
its  parish,  that  he  had  not  visited  several  times. 

Having  become  acquainted  with  the  various  needs  of 
his  flock,  he  proceeded  to  supply  them.  The  German 
Catholics  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  had  grown  so  numer- 
ous and  the  difficulties  of  finding  acceptable  pastors  for 
them  so  great,  that  he  called  to  his  aid  the  German  Re- 
demptorists,  who  in  a  short  time  gathered  a  numerous 
congregation  in  the  newly  built  church  of  St.  Alphonsus.1 
For  other  reasons  he  appealed  for  help  to  several  of  the 
religious  orders,  for  instance  the  Lazarists.  To  provide 
the  means  of  spreading  education,  religious  and  secular, 
he  summoned  from  France  the  Christian  Brothers,  a  body 
of  men  founded  by  Saint  John  Baptist  de  la  Salle,  an 
alumnus  of  St.  Sulpice.  Their  principal  school,  Calvert 

1  Long  before,  however,  St.  John's  Church  had  been  used  by  the  Ger- 
man Catholics. 


8UXPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  279 

Hall,  soon  became  a  well  known  and  popular  institution 
in  Baltimore.  Nor  did  he  forget  to  come  to  the  relief 
of  the  sick  and  the  orphans  by  the  foundation  of  hospitals 
and  asylums. 

Archbishop  Whitfield,  recognizing  the  importance  of 
helping  the  spread  of  truth,  not  only  among  Catholics, 
but  among  their  separated  brethren,  had  begun  the  for- 
mation of  a  Catholic  press  by  founding  a  weekly  journal 
called  "The  Metropolitan."  Archbishop  Eccleston  en- 
deavored to  extend  and  intensify  the  movement  thus  in- 
augurated. To  make  known  Catholic  truth  in  clear  and 
vigorous  language,  calculated  to  reach  the  educated  and 
even  the  less  intelligent,  he  called  into  life  the  Catholic 
Tract  Society,  appealing  to  his  old  and  faithful  con- 
freres of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  and  to  his  clergy  in  gen- 
eral to  furnish  the  necessary  literature.  His  success  was 
such  that  the  resulting  pamphlets  were  afterwards  gath- 
ered into  several  volumes,  which  proved  of  great  service 
in  dissipating  error  and  spreading  the  truth.  He  sought 
to  place  Catholic  works  within  the  reach  of  all  those  com- 
mitted to  his  care  by  providing  cheap  editions  of  the  most 
serviceable  books,  and  in  1837  the  Catholic  hierarchy  pro- 
moted his  plans  by  helping  him  financially.  In  1843  the 
Archbishop  turned  over  the  remainder  of  this  fund 
($600)  to  the  Sulpician  Fathers,  to  help  the  Metropoli- 
tan Press,  which  they  had  established  for  the  furtherance 
of  his  scheme.  This  Press  printed  larger  works  at  reason- 
able prices,  for  instance,  Alban  Butler's  "Lives  of  the 
Saints."  This  plan,  however,  was  abandoned,  as  experi- 
ence proved  that  private  enterprise  was  likely  to  produce 
more  satisfactory  results. 

How  earnest  and  successful  the  archbishop  was  in 
bringing  into  being  the  preparatory  seminary  so  long  de- 
sired by  his  predecessors,  we  have  already  told.  His  share 


280  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

in  creating  this  new  institution  justly  entitles  him  to 
the  name  of  second  founder  of  St.  Charles'  College. 

What  was  especially  characteristic  of  his  government  of 
the  metropolitan  province  of  Baltimore  was  the  frequency 
with  which  he  called  together  his  suffragan  bishops  to 
deliberate  in  provincial  councils.  Up  to  1847  Baltimore 
was  the  only  metropolitan  see  and  the  councils  held  un- 
der Archbishop  Eccleston  were  therefore  national  coun- 
cils in  all  except  name.  According  to  the  recommenda- 
tiona  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  he  gathered  the  bishops  of 
the  Church  around  him  every  third  or  fourth  year  to  de- 
vise plans  for  the  development  of  the  American  Church, 
for  ensuring  its  prosperity  and  the  prevention  of  abuses, 
whether  existing  or  imminent.  Five  times  the  prelates  of 
the  American  Church  assembled  in  the  city  of  Baltimore 
under  the  wise  guidance  of  the  metropolitan,  and  delib- 
erated concerning  what  measures  would  strengthen  the 
growing  Church.  They  cautioned  their  flocks  against  the 
dangers  of  secret  societies  and  mixed  marriages ;  they  pro- 
vided safeguards  for  the  valid  reception  of  the  sacrament 
of  marriage;  they  exhorted  Catholic  parents  to  provide 
Christian  schools  for  their  children;  they  took  measures 
for  the  most  useful  employment  of  pious  and  charitable 
funds;  they  made  provision  for  the  support  of  aged  and 
infirm  priests;  lastly,  they  begged  the  Holy  Father  to 
place  their  native  country  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Mother  of  God,  immaculately  conceived,  and  to  declare 
the  Immaculate  Conception  a  dogma  of  the  Church. 
Surely,  when  we  look  back  upon  the  history  of  the  past 
sixty  or  seventy  years,  we  cannot  but  admire  the  wisdom 
and  the  piety  of  these  measures,  nor  refuse  to  acknowledge 
our  indebtedness  to  the  care  and  solicitude  of  Archbishop 
Eccleston. 

Besides  the  work  thus  summarized,  the  five  Councils 
of  Baltimore  presided  over  by  Archbishop  Eccleston  be- 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  281 

stowed  a  special  care  on  the  organization  of  the  Church 
as  necessitated  by  its  rapid  growth.  The  Third  Council 
of  Baltimore  (1837)  was  attended  by  the  metropolitan 
and  nine  suffragans.  Almost  every  one  of  the  following 
councils,  recognizing  the  needs  of  the  various  parts  of 
the  great  republic,  recommended  to  Rome  the  creation 
of  several  new  sees  and  Rome  acted  upon  the  suggestion 
of  the  American  bishops.  At  this  time,  however,  Great 
Britain  still  claimed  the  Northwest  Territory,  including 
the  present  States  of  Oregon  and  Washington  as  a  part  of 
its  domain.  Rome  was  led  by  these  British  claims  to 
create  an  Archdiocese  of  Oregon  or  Portland,  with  Walla- 
walla  and  Vancouver  as  its  suffragans.  Oregon  had 
hitherto  been  considered  a  part  of  the  diocese  of  St.  Louis, 
and  thus  a  see  newly  created  was  made  to  outrank  the 
diocese  of  which  it  had  been  a  part.  This  led  Rome  to 
create  St.  Louis  an  archdiocese  in  1847. 

At  the  council  officially  designated  as  the  Seventh  Coun- 
cil of  Baltimore  (1849),  there  were  present  two  arch- 
bishops and  twenty-three  bishops.  Nothing  impresses  the 
great  growth  of  Catholicity  in  the  United  States  under 
Archbishop  Eccleston  more  strongly  upon  the  mind  than 
these  figures.  For  to  the  increase  in  the  number  of  sees 
there  was  a  corresponding  increase  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land  in  the  number  of  the  faithful,  of 
the  priests,  of  the  churches,  and  of  educational  and  chari- 
table institutions  of  all  kinds.  Archbishop  Eccleston  in 
1849  might  therefore  feel  justly  satisfied  with  the  result 
of  his  stewardship. 

Two  years  later  the  archbishop  was  called  to  his  re- 
ward. He  was  still  a  young  man,  having  just  passed 
his  fiftieth  year.  His  tall  stature  and  vigorous  voice 
betokened  strength  and  energy  and  he  had  been  an  en- 
ergetic shepherd  of  his  flock  for  seventeen  years.  But  in 
1851  hia  health  declined.  To  combat  his  increasing 


282  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

weakness  he  took  up  his  residence  near  the  convent  of 
the  Visitation  in  Georgetown,  where  all  the  care  and  at- 
tention which  medical  skill  and  the  affection  of  his  friends 
could  suggest  were  lavished  upon  him,  but  in  vain.  He 
grew  feebler  and  feebler  and  on  April  22,  1851,  he  gently 
passed  away,  an  example  of  piety  in  death  as  he  had 
been  in  life. 

III. — RIGHT  REVEREND  JOHN  MARY  JOSEPH  CHANCHE, 
BISHOP  OF  NATCHEZ 

The  closest  friend  of  Archbishop  Eccleston  was  John 
Mary  Joseph  Chanche,  S.S.,  who  died  Bishop  of  Natchez. 
Though  five  years  older  than  Archbishop  Eccleston  (he 
was  born  October  4,  1795),  the  two  had  met  in  early  life 
at  St.  Mary's  College  and  there  formed  a  friendship 
which  bound  them  together  throughout  life.  Eccleston 
was  of  English  extraction,  Chanche  the  son  of  a  San  Do- 
mingo refugee  who  had  settled  in  Baltimore  only  a  few 
years  before  his  birth.  He  became  a  student  at  St.  Mary's 
College  at  the  early  age  of  eleven,  and  at  sixteen  we  find 
him  a  teacher  at  that  institution.  From  1818  both  the 
friends  were  instructors  at  the  college,  and  taught  there 
together  for  many  years.  Meantime,  they  had  both  grown 
up  to  be  tall  and  stately  young  men,  dignified  and  pol- 
ished gentlemen,  both  distinguished  for  oratorical  talents 
and  characterized  by  the  poise  which  inspires  respect  and 
gives  authority.  Archbishop  Marechal  ordained  M. 
Chanche  in  1819. 

In  1829,  when  M.  Eccleston  became  president  of  the 
college,  M.  Chanche  was  promoted  to  the  vice-presidency, 
and  he  became  his  friend's  successor  as  president  when 
the  latter  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Archbishop  of  Bal- 
timore. When  Archbishop  Whitfield  was  seeking  a  co- 
adjutor who  should  be  his  successor,  Bishop  Fenwick  of 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  283 

Boston  warmly  advocated  M.  Chanche  for  the  office,  but 
M.  Chanche  succeeded  in  persuading  the  archbishop  to 
prefer  M.  Eccleston,  though  five  years  his  junior.  The 
Bishop  of  Boston,  however,  was  so  entirely  convinced  that 
M.  Chanche  was  eminently  fitted  to  occupy  the  episcopal 
see  that  he  proposed  him  first  to  be  his  own  coadjutor  in 
Boston,  and  afterwards  as  Bishop  Dubois'  coadjutor  in 
New  York.  But  M.  Chanche  with  the  aid  of  his  friend, 
the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  again  escaped  the  episcopal 
dignity  and  meanwhile  raised  St.  Mary's  College  to 
greater  and  greater  prosperity.  But  notwithstanding  his 
obstinate  refusal  of  the  miter,  he  was  destined  not  to 
escape  it.  The  Third  Council  of  Baltimore  in  1837  pro- 
posed the  creation  of  several  new  sees,  among  them  that 
of  Natchez,  in  the  State  of  Mississippi,  and  for  this  place 
the  Fathers  of  the  Council  proposed  the  learned  presi- 
dent of  St.  Mary's  College.  Though  we  hear  of  no  fur- 
ther opposition  on  his  part,  it  is  likely  that  he  again  tried 
to  avoid  the  promotion,  for  he  was  not  consecrated  bishop 
until  1841. 

To  an  ambitious  man,  the  see  of  Natchez  offered  but 
few  attractions,  but  much  and  hard  work  for  a  zealous 
and  vigorous  shepherd.  He  tells  us  himself  in  1845  that 
when  he  was  installed  as  Bishop  of  Natchez  he  found 
not  a  single  church  or  institution  and  only  four  priests, 
one  of  whom  was  on  his  death-bed  and  the  others  were 
about  to  leave  the  diocese.  Where  was  he  to  begin  when 
everything  remained  to  be  done?  He  did  not  hesitate, 
but  began  forthwith  to  build  his  cathedral,  which  he 
dedicated  to  the  Mother  of  God  and  which  proved  to  be 
a  respectable  monument  of  architecture.  At  the  same 
time  he  scoured  every  part  of  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
doing  what  he  could  to  help  his  flock  to  erect  the  mu 
needed  churches.  In  1848  the  Seton  Sisters  from  Em- 


284  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

mitsburg  came  to  take  charge  of  an  orphan  asylum,  which 
was  sadly  needed. 

Like  most  bishops  of  his  time,  he  found  it  necessary 
to  seek  assistance  in  Europe,  and  so  in  1848-49  we  find 
him  in  France,  in  search  of  men  and  money.  Nor  was 
he  disappointed,  for  besides  an  alms  from  the  ever  chari- 
table Society  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  he  brought 
back  to  his  diocese  a  number  of  priests  from  Brittany, 
that  never-failing  source  of  aid  to  the  young  American 
Church.  With  these  new  resources  he  renewed  his  ef- 
forts to  help  the  poor  and  scattered  Catholics  of  his  dio- 
cese. Soon  his  clerical  recruits  were  vigorously  at  work 
and  we  hear  of  churches  springing  up  throughout  the 
State.  Some  of  the  missionaries  visited  the  various  parts 
of  the  diocese  that  had  not  yet  been  provided  with  churches, 
and  found  to  their  satisfaction  that  there  were  many  more 
Catholics  than  the  most  sanguine  had  suspected.  Whites 
and  blacks  came  at  the  call  of  the  priests  and  one  ancient 
colored  woman  from  Maryland,  who  had  not  seen  a  priest 
for  twenty  years,  but  had  remained  true  to  the  Faith, 
proved  a  source  of  special  satisfaction  to  the  missionary. 

Bishop  Chanche's  zealous  labors  naturally  weakened  his 
constitution  and  during  the  year  1850  he  was  for  the 
most  part  an  invalid.  But  he  had  much  to  encourage 
him,  for  in  1851,  ten  years  after  his  consecration,  in  ad- 
dition to  his  cathedral,  he  had  eleven  priests,  eleven 
churches  and  thirty-two  missionary  stations.  So  with 
hopeful  heart  he  set  out  to  attend  the  First  Plenary  Coun- 
cil of  Baltimore.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the  work  of 
the  Fathers  and  was  greatly  pleased  to  see  again  the 
scenes  of  his  youth  and  the  field  of  his  early  labors.  But 
his  joy  was  not  to  last.  'The  cholera,  which  at  that  time 
was  ravaging  Maryland,  marked  him  out  for  a  victim, 
and  he  died  at  Frederick  on  July  22,  1852.  He  requested 
that  his  remains  be  laid  in  the  cemetery  of  the  Baltimore 


RT.  HKV.  JOHN  J.  CIIAXCII 
First  Hishop  of  Natohfz. 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  L' v", 

cathedral,  where  he  had  been  baptized,  ordained  and  con- 
secrated. 

IV. — RIGHT  REVEREND  GUY  IGNATIUS  CHABRAT, 
COADJUTOR  OF  BARDSTOWN 

Next  to  Bishop  David,  perhaps  no  priest  attached  to 
the  diocese  of  Bardstown  was  more  closely  connected  with 
Bishop  Flaget  than  his  second  coadjutor,  Guy  Ignatius 
Chabrat,  Bishop  of  Bolina.     He  was  one  of  three  young 
clerics  enlisted  by  him  during  his  stay  in  Europe  previ- 
ous to  his  consecration.     M.   Chabrat  was  at  that  time 
in  sub-deacon's  orders.     He  was  a  native  of  Chambre 
and  a  student  at  the  Seminary  of  St-Flour,  of  whi«h  M. 
Levadoux  was  superior.     He  came  to  Baltimore  early  in 
1811  and  was  there  admitted  into  the  Society  of  St.  Sul- 
pice  on  March  18  of  that  year.     With  Bishop  Flaget  he 
started  for  the  West  and  was  a  member  of  the  party  which 
travelled,  on  the  Ohio,  from  Pittsburg  to  Louisville,  in  the 
famous  flat  boat  on  which  M.  David  is  said  to  have  be- 
gun the  Bardstown  seminary  of  St.  Thomas.     On  his  ar- 
rival in  Kentucky,  young  Chabrat  completed  his  theo- 
logical studies  and   his   priestly  training  under   Father 
David  at  St.  Thomas'  Seminary  in  Marion  County,  where 
it  is  probable  that  deacon's  orders  were  conferred  on  him. 
As  the  chapel  at  St.  Thomas'  was  too  small  to  accom- 
modate a  congregation  of  any  size,  Father  Wilson,  the 
Dominican   superior   of   St.    Rose's   Monastery,    invited 
Bishop  Flaget  to  accept  the  hospitality  of  his  church  for 
the  ordination.     Accordingly  M.   Chabrat  was  here  or- 
dained priest  on  December  25,  181 1,1  being  the  first  priest 
ordained  in  the  State  of  Kentucky.     He  was  a  welcome 
addition  to  the  three  or  four  priests  already  in  the  State, 
and  was  appointed  without  delay  to  the  parish  of  St. 

1  Rev.   William  J.   Hewlett,   "St.  Thomas'   Seminary,"   p.  57. 


286  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Michael's  in  Nelson  County.  In  those  days,  however,  the 
pastor  of  a  Kentucky  parish  did  not  •onfine  his  activity  to 
the  congregation  which  gave  him  his  title,  and,  like  the 
other  Kentucky  missionaries,  Father  Chabrat  took  care 
of  the  Catholics  residing  for  many  miles  distant  from 
his  parish.  Gradually,  also,  he  organized  stations,  built 
new  churches  and  prepared  new  parishes. 

Such  was  the  tenor  of  his  life  for  the  first  thirteen 
years  of  his  priesthood.  In  1824,  however,  while  not 
relinquishing  this  exhausting  missionary  work,  he  as- 
sumed the  charge,  placed  on  him  by  Bishop  Flaget,  of 
the  newly  established  Sisterhood  of  Loretto,  whose  or- 
ganization and  work  he  directed  for  many  years  and  which 
became  a  household  word  in  the  early  Catholic  history  of 
Kentucky.  His  wisdom  and  prudence,  both  on  the  mis- 
sion anJ  in  the  direction  of  Loretto,  earned  for  him  the 
well  deserved  confidence  of  Bishop  Flaget,  who  in  1829, 
after  well  nigh  twenty  years  of  the  episcopate,  feeling  that 
his  strength  was  failing  him  and  seeing  that  Bishop 
David's  physique  forbade  an  active  outdoor  life,  looked 
around  for  a  man  to  whom  he  might  with  confidence  en- 
trust the  administration  of  his  vast  diocese.  He  chose 
without  hesitation  the  first  priest  whom  he  had  ordained 
at  St.  Kose's.  Kome  approved  of  the  old  prelate's  choice 
and  in  1834  Father  Chabrat  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Bolina  and  Coadjutor  of  Bardstown. 

From  the  time  of  his  consecration,  Bishop  Chabrat 
relieved  Bishop  Flaget  of  many  duties  requiring  travel 
or  absence  from  his  cathedral.  He  was  seen  visiting  and 
conferring  from  one  end  of  the  diocese  to  the  other.  He 
also  attended  the  Council  of  Baltimore  called  by  Arch- 
bishop Eccleston  in  1837.  In  the  absence  of  the  Bishop  of 
Bardstown,  it  was  he  who  proposed  the  creation  of  the 
see  of  Nashville,  which  proposal  was  accepted  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  Council.  In  1846  he  appeared  for  the  last 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  287 

time  at  the  Sixth  Council  of  Baltimore,  and  even  then 
was  suffering  from  a  disease  which  threatened  to  deprive 
him  of  his  eye-sight.  Shortly  afterwards  he  left  for 
France,  to  consult  the  foremost  oculist  of  that  country, 
without,  however,  being  relieved.  He  resigned  his  bishop- 
ric in  1847,  retired  to  his  father's  residence  and  shortly 
after  became  completely  blind.  He  died  in  Mauriac, 
France,  in  1868. 

V. — RIGHT  REVEREND  AUGUSTINE  VEROT, 
BISHOP  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE 

The  last  of  the  bishops  whom  St.  Sulpice  gave  to  the 
American  church  was  the  Right  Reverend  Augustine 
Verot,  of  whose  efficiency  and  work  as  a  scientist  and  pro- 
fessor at  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore,  we  have  repeat- 
edly spoken.  M.  Verot  was  born  in  Le  Puy,  France,  in 
May,  1804.  He  completed  his  collegiate  studies  in  his  na- 
tive town  and  thereupon  entered  St.  Sulpice,  Paris,  in 
1820,  where  he  was  raised  to  the  priesthood  in  1828, 
shortly  afterwards  becoming  a  Sulpician.  With  the  his- 
torian Fredet,  he  came  to  the  United  States  in  1830,  at 
the  suggestion  of  M.  Carriere.  We  have  repeatedly  spoken 
of  his  success  as  a  professor  of  science  at  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege, Baltimore,  his  renown  undoubtedly  contributing 
much  to  the  prosperity  of  the  college,  for,  aside  from 
the  enthusiasm  which  he  inspired  as  a  teacher,  he  was  a 
popular  member  of  the  faculty.  He  was  always  ready  to 
join  the  students'  swimming  excursions,  and  an  island 
in  the  Patapsco  River,  one  mile  from  Woodstock,  still 
bears  the  name  of  Verot's  Island.  On  these  occasions,  he 
would  rough  it  with  the  liveliest  of  the  students. 

On  the  suppression  of  St.  Mary's  College  in  1852,  he 
was  named  pastor  of  Ellicott  Mills.  However,  he  kept 
up  his  connection  with  the  Sulpician  students  at  St 


288  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Charles',  and  at  times  invited  them  to  Ellicott  Mills,  at 
which  times  he  became  a  boy  again.  We  learn  that  on 
one  of  these  visits,  M.  Verot  detained  the  seminarians  a 
day  longer  than  had  been  agreed  upon,  which  brought 
upon  him  a  reprimand  from  M.  Lhomme,  then  superior 
of  the  seminary. 

But  M.  Verot  was  essentially  a  serious  man.  At  El- 
licott Mills  he  took  great  interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
colored  people,  making  no  secret  of  his  sympathy  with 
them  and  ever  ready  to  do  them  a  service.  This  atti- 
tude was  not  altered  when  he  was  raised  to  the  episcopal 
dignity  and  led  to  his  writing  a  pastoral  letter  on  slavery, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  his  writings. 

In  1855  Father  Villeneuve,  one  of  the  Montreal  Sul- 
picians,  came  to  Baltimore  in  the  interest  of  Archbishop 
Hughes  of  New  York,  who  was  reorganizing  his  semi- 
nary. The  Montreal  Sulpicians  had  promised  to  supply 
it  with  a  number  of  professors,  and  the  archbishop  was 
especially  anxious  to  obtain  the  services  of  M.  Verot  as 
its  president.  Father  Villeneuve's  mission  was  to  obtain 
Father  Verot's  consent  to  this  arrangement.  In  this, 
however,  he  did  not  succeed,  so  the  entire  project  failed.1 

Father  Verot  was  not  to  remain  long  at  Ellicott  Mills, 
for  in  1858  he  was  appointed  Vicar  Apostolic  of  East 
Florida  and  Bishop  of  Danaba.  Florida  was  an  old 
Spanish  colony,  and  naturally  suggests  a  large  Catholic 
population  with  a  numerous  clergy,  but  the  frequent 
changes  of  government,  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  had 
greatly  retarded  the  growth  of  the  beautiful  peninsula. 
The  new  vicar  apostolic  found  a  limited  flock  with  only 
four  priests.  He  set  to  work  without  delay,  his  apostolic 
tours  covering  his  entire  diocese.  He  started  new 
churches,  founded  schools,  called  both  Sisters  of  Charity 

1  See  diary  of  M.  Lhomme  in  the  archives  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Bal- 
timore. 


8ULPICIAN    MISSIONARY    BISHOPS  289 

and  Christian  Brothers  to  his  aid  and  lost  no  opportunity 
to  instruct  his  people  by  means  of  pastorals  which  at- 
tracted much  attention.  Having  roused  the  half-dormant 
spirit  of  his  flock,  he  followed  the  example  of  many  Amer- 
ican bishops  of  the  period  and  in  1858  went  to  Europe. 
Here,  besides  material  aid,  he  sought  for  laborers  to  help 
him  in  the  cultivation  of  the  Lord's  vineyard,  and  his 
quest  was  not  in  vain.  He  brought  back  with  him  six 
priests  and  four  Christian  Brothers. 

Two  years  later,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  he 
was  transferred  from  Florida  to  be  the  third  Bishop  of 
Savannah,  which,  however,  included  a  part  of  his  former 
diocese.  Georgia  had  never  been  a  specially  flourishing 
tract  in  the  domain  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  the  un- 
fortunate Civil  War  made  the  labors  of  the  bishop  un- 
usually difficult.  It  is  therefore  the  more  surprising  that 
in  the  diocese  of  Savannah,  amid  most  untoward  circum- 
stances, churches  and  schools  and  missions  sprang  up 
as  they  did.  During  the  war  he  not  only  worked  with 
zeal  and  success  for  his  own  flock,  but  devoted  his  efforts 
to  relieving  the  hard  lot  of  the  Federal  prisoners  in  An- 
dersonville.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  war  he  again  turned 
his  attention  to  the  colored  race  and  did  all  in  his  power 
to  promote  negro  education. 

In  1870  Bishop  Verot  was  translated  to  the  newly  cre- 
ated see  of  St.  Augustine,  where  he  worked  with  new 
energy  for  the  welfare  of  his  people.  He  looked  after 
not  only  their  spiritual,  but  also  their  material  good,  and 
took  a  vigorous  part  in  making  Florida  the  winter  health- 
resort  which  it  has  become.  Meanwhile,  the  bishop  passed 
from  parish  to  parish  and  church  to  church,  encouraging 
and  aiding  their  interests,  and  giving  special  attention  to 
the  cause  of  education.  He  thus  laid  the  foundation  of 
a  prosperity  which  lasted  long  after  his  death,  which  took 


290  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

place,  after  a  life  of  laborious  zeal,  at  St.  Augustine, 
June  10,  1876. 

He  was  not  only  an  energetic  administrator,  but  he 
was  still  more  a  scholar  of  no  mean  attainments.  In 
St.  Mary's  College  he  gained  the  respect  of  the  students 
and  of  his  fellow  scientists  for  his  learning  in  physics 
and  chemistry,  and  he  left  a  deep  impression  as  a  phi- 
losopher and  a  theologian.  At  the  various  Councils  of 
Baltimore,  and  even  at  Rome,  during  the  Vatican  Coun- 
cil, his  views  were  listened  to  with  respect.  In  the  United 
States,  through  his  pastorals  and  his  periodical  articles,  he 
exerted  no  little  influence  in  questions  of  theology,  so- 
ciology and  science. 

Bishop  Verot  thus  ends  the  old  line  of  Sulpician  bishops 
in  the  United  States.  Our  record  shows  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  did  their  best  to  escape  the  episcopal 
honors  which  the  Company  looked  upon  as  undesirable, 
but  which  they  likewise  regarded  as  burdens  which 
duty  and  obedience  to  the  Holy  Father  compelled  them 
to  accept.  Many  of  them,  by  resigning,  sought  to  throw 
off  the  burden  after  they  had  successfully  carried  it  for 
a  number  of  years.  One  and  all  proved  that  they  were 
animated  with  the  spirit  of  the  Company. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  just  estimate  of  their  achieve- 
ments and  their  merits  compels  us  to  declare  that  the 
Sulpician  bishops  were  no  less  great  as  administrators 
than  as  teachers.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  these 
men,  after  becoming  accustomed  in  the  classroom  to  the 
life  of  scholars,  should  return  to  the  world  and  display 
such  unusually  great  qualities  as  missionaries  and  gov- 
ernors, as  practical  men  prepared  to  meet  with  equal  suc- 
cess the  statesman  and  the  man  of  the  world,  the  Catholic 
and  the  non-Catholic.  They  gained  the  admiration  of 
their  flocks  and  the  assistance  of  men  of  other  creeds,  who 


RT.  REV.  AUGUSTINE  Vfiaor 
Bishop  of  St.  Auguttine. 


8ULPICIAN    MI88IONABY    BISHOPS  291 

saw  the  great  good  they  were  doing  for  their  country 
as  well  as  for  their  Church.  Though  for  the  most  part 
foreign  by  birth,  they  did  not  yield  to  the  native  Ameri- 
can in  true  and  enthusiastic  patriotism,  and  when  duty 
or  sickness  called  them  away  from  our  shores  they  never 
forgot  the  years  which  they  had  spent  in  the  great  trans- 
Atlantic  republic  and  the  principles  with  which  it  had 
inspired  them. 

If  we  ask  why,  after  successfully  guiding  the  early  days 
of  the  Church  in  our  great  country,  they  suddenly  dis- 
appear from  the  ecclesiastical  roll  of  honor,  the  answer 
is  easily  found.  They  were  true  and  sincere  sons  of  St. 
Sulpice;  they  believed  in  its  principles,  according  to 
which  their  mission  was  not  to  be  governors  of  the  Church, 
but  educators  of  such  governors.  For  a  time  they  had 
consented  to  take  upon  themselves  the  burden  of  the 
episcopacy,  because  the  supreme  authorities  of  the  Church 
had  placed  above  the  rules  of  the  Company  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  Church,  necessities  which  were  removed 
through  the  exertions  of  the  Company.  This  last  fact 
should  not  hinder  us  from  recognizing  the  great  services 
which  the  Sulpician  bishops  rendered  to  Catholicism,  and 
we  may  say,  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Republic.  The  names 
of  Flaget  and  Dubourg,  of  Marechal  and  Eccleston,  will 
ever  be  remembered  by  American  Catholics  as  the  syno- 
nyms of  prudence,  zeal,  energy,  charity  and  self-sacrifice. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MM.  LHOMME  AND  DUBKEUL 

With  the  departure  of  M.  Deluol  for  France  in  1849 
begins  a  new  period  for  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  in  the 
United  States.  The  time  was  passed  when  necessity  gov- 
erned its  policy  and  action,  the  days  of  transition  and 
makeshifts  were  over,  and  the  rules  of  the  Society,  the 
norms  prescribed  by  MM.  Olier  and  Emery,  became  the 
law  in  America  as  in  Europe.  The  period  was  drawing  to 
.an  end  when  the  Sulpicians,  in  order  to  provide  for  the 
daily  bread  of  their  seminarians,  felt  obliged  to  maintain 
a  college  for  all  Catholics  and  non-Catholics  willing  to 
pay  their  yearly  stipend,  irrespective  of  the  career  they 
intended  to  follow.  No  longer  did  the  Sulpician  direc- 
tors provide  laws  and  work  for  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  no 
more  did  they  act  as  the  spiritual  guides  and  confessors 
of  the  laity.1  The  American  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  now 
faced  what  was  in  many  ways  a  revolution,  and  it  becomes 
necessary  to  examine  what  were  the  means  and  resources 
wherewith  the  Society  undertook  its  new  task  and  entered 
on  the  problems  of  the  future. 

When  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice 
had  charge  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  and  St.  Mary's  Col- 
lege, we  are  amazed  that  in  1849  there  should  have  been 
available  as  directors  and  professors  for  these  two  institu- 
tions only  ten  men.  Now  that  M.  Deluol  had  left  for 
France,  there  remained  of  the  faculty  of  the  Baltimore 

1  Father  Elder,  by  special  privilege,  continued  to  hear  confessions  un- 
til his  death  in  1871. 

292 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND    DUBREUL       293 

seminary  only  MM.  Lhomme,  Verot  and  Fredet.  M.  Ray- 
mond was  president  of  St.  Mary's  College,  in  which  task 
he  was  aided  by  MM.  Knight,  Elder,  Randanne,  Joubert 
and  Jenkins.  MM.  Verot,  Fredet  and  Lhomme  taught 
in  both  institutions.  The  first  three  gentlemen,  of  course, 
would  still  be  needed  for  the  seminary,  but  in  case  of  the 
discontinuance  of  St.  Mary's  College  not  all  of  its  profes- 
sors were  necessary  for  the  new  St.  Charles'  College, 
which,  for  the  first  year  or  two,  required  only  Father 
Jenkins  or  Father  Raymond  as  president  of  the  institution. 
This  gives  us  an  idea  of  the  work  to  be  done  by  the  Sul- 
picians  after  the  suppression  of  St.  Mary's  College  and  of 
the  men  available  for  the  purpose. 

When  the  departure  of  M.  Deluol  for  France  was  an- 
nounced at  a  meeting  of  the  Sulpicians,  it  was  given  out 
that  M.  Lhomme  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Society  of 
St.  Sulpice,  though  his  appointment  as  superior  was  made 
only  in  the  following  year.  To  him,  therefore,  was  allotted 
the  task  of  reorganizing  the  various  institutions  belonging 
to  the  Society  in  and  near  Baltimore. 

M.  Francis  Lhomme  was  born  at  Brioude  in  the  diocese 
of  Le  Puy  on  November  13,  1794.  He  joined  the  Com- 
pany of  St.  Sulpice  in  France  and  in  1827  was  sent  to 
America,  where  he  was  immediately  placed  in  charge  of 
the  Greek  department  at  the  college  and  given  some  the- 
ology classes  at  the  seminary.  Later  he  also  taught  Sa- 
cred Scripture,  in  which  branch  he  took  a  lively  interest 
He  was  a  kind,  pious  man,  not  lacking  in  force,  and  under 
him  the  seminary  was  a  model  of  order.  In  the  year  1849, 
when  his  administration  began,  the  seminary  numbered 
some  twenty-two  students,  while  in  1860  the  attendance 
had  increased  to  more  than  forty.  Hitherto  the  Archdio- 
cese of  Baltimore  had  contributed  the  majority  of  the  stu- 
dents in  the  seminary,  but  soon  after  M.  Lhomme's  rule 
began,  the  majority  of  the  seminarians  consisted  of  out- 


294  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

siders,  New  England  sending  a  large  proportion.  Under 
his  regime  bishops  for  every  part  of  the  United  States  were 
recruited  from  among  the  alumni  of  St.  Mary's,  among 
them  Archbishop  Leray  of  New  Orleans,  Bishops  Edgar  P. 
Wadhams,  the  first  bishop  of  Ogdensburg,  Eichard  Phe- 
lan  of  Pittsburg,  John  Foley  of  Detroit  and  Patrick 
O'Keilly  of  Springfield. 

The  admirable  discipline  which  prevailed  in  the  semi- 
nary in  M.  Lhomme's  time  was  due,  no  doubt,  primarily, 
to  the  spirit  of  order  and  to  the  example  of  the  superior, 
but  not  a  little  to  his  popularity.  Like  MM.  Tessier  and 
Deluol,  he  saw  to  it  that  the  students  were  allowed  need- 
ful recreation  and  his  diary  contains  several  records  of  the 
excursions  made  by  the  theologians  on  the  Fourth  of  July 
and  other  holidays,  when  they  were  the  guests  of  Mr. 
Cromwell,  who  had  been  a  student  of  St.  Mary's  College. 
While  he  thus  provided  for  their  necessary  recreation  he 
did  not  neglect  their  intellectual  needs. 

The  usual  peace  and  harmony  of  the  seminary  were 
much  disturbed  during  this  administration  by  the  so-called 
Knownothing  movement.  The  Knownothings  were  an 
American  nativist  society,  aiming  at  the  expulsion  of  for- 
eigners, especially  Catholics,  from  the  United  States.  The 
spirit  had  been  manifest  for  some  time  previous,  but  in 
1854  the  movement  became  active  in  Baltimore,  its  first 
demonstrations  being  directed  against  the  Visitation  Con- 
vent in  Park  Street.  M.  Lhomme  tells  us  in  his  diary 
that  on  January  16,  1854,  two  hundred  men  marched  down 
Pennsylvania  Avenue  on  their  way  to  Monument  Square. 
In  front  of  the  Visitation  Convent  on  Park  Street  they 
became  riotous  and  fired  some  shots.  This  alarmed  the 
Catholics  of  the  district,  who  organized  the  Young  Cath- 
olic Friends'  Society,  with  headquarters  near  St.  Alphon- 
sus'  Church,  whence  they  might  extend  assistance  to  the 
Visitation  Convent  or  other  places  in  danger.  The  dem- 


VERY  REV.  FRANCIS  LHOMME. 
Fourth  Superior  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary. 


ADMINISTBATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND   DUBBEUL       295 

onstration  on  this  occasion  proved  a  flash  in  the  pan,  but 
the  alarm  created  lingered,  and  as  a  result  of  the  Know- 
nothings'  threats  of  violence  the  seminarians  were  de- 
prived of  their  annual  excursion  on  the  4th  of  July  of  that 
year.  Even  four  years  later  the  turbulence  of  the  nativist 
fanatics  had  not  subsided,  for  on  January  7,  1858,  while 
the  students  were  taking  their  usual  walk,  they  were  as- 
saulted by  a  band  of  rowdies,  who  threw  stones  and  even 
fired  shots  at  them.  Father  Flammant  was  struck  by  a 
stone  and  Father  Ferte  sustained  serious  injury  to  his  nose. 
Meanwhile  the  suppression  of  St.  Mary's  College,  which 
had  been  decreed  by  M.  de  Courson,  was  in  active  progress, 
and  when  these  Knownothing  demonstrations  disquieted 
the  Sulpicians,  they  had  barely  recovered  from  the  domes- 
tic disturbances  resulting  from  this  suppression.  This  ques- 
tion had  been  the  chief  reason  for  the  recall  of  M.  Deluol 
to  France  in  1849,  but  no  immediate  steps  were  taken  by 
M.  Lhomme  after  his  accession  to  power.  Our  readers  will 
remember  that  one  of  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  this 
matter  was  the  establishment  of  another  Catholic  col- 
legiate institution  under  the  direction  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  For  some  reason  the  negotiations  to 
this  end  had  failed,  but  in  1851  the  question  was  taken 
up  again  by  M.  Lhomme,  who  on  October  13  conferred  on 
the  subject  with  Archbishop  Kenrick,  the  successor  of 
Archbishop  Eccleston,  who  had  died  on  April  22nd  of  that 
year.  M.  Lhomme  does  not  tell  us  of  the  results  of  this 
conference,  but  since  on  the  same  day  he  discussed  with 
the  Jesuit,  Father  Brocard,  the  question  of  surrendering 
his  students  to  a  Jesuit  college  to  be  founded  in  Baltimore, 
we  may  conclude  that  the  project  had  the  approval  of  the 
archbishop.  In  the  following  March,  M.  Lhomme  wrote  a 
long  letter  on  the  same  subject  to  M.  de  Courson.  The 
answer,  which  arrived  on  the  19th  of  April,  authorized  the 


296     THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Baltimore  superior  to  treat  with,  the  Jesuits  regarding  the 
surrender  of  the  college. 

Of  course,  Father  Clarke,  the  Jesuit  superior,  had  to 
obtain  the  consent  of  the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
to  this  step  on  the  part  of  his  Society,  and  on  June  12,  the 
commencement  day  of  St.  Mary's  College,  Father  Clarke 
notified  Father  Lhomme  that  he  had  received  the  neces- 
sary authorization  from  Father  Roothan,  his  superior  gen- 
eral. Father  Jenkins,  at  that  time  President  of  St.  Mary's 
College,  announced  in  the  Baltimore  "American"  of  July 
28,  the  news  that  St.  Mary's  College  had  ceased  to  exist.1 
The  surrender  of  this  flourishing  institution  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Company  was  unquestionably  a  great  sacrifice,  espe- 
cially as  it  took  place  at  a  time  when  its  previous  successes 
promised  still  further  prosperity.  But  in  comparison 
with  the  principle  and  spirit  of  the  Society,  success  counted 
for  nothing  in  the  eyes  of  its  loyal  sons,  now  that  no  rea- 
son of  honor  or  honesty  could  demand  further  delay. 

The*  relinquishing  of  St.  Mary's  College  naturally 
brought  about  the  dispersion  of  its  faculty.  As  early  as 
1850  the  Sulpician,  Father  Knight,  went  to  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Baltimore,  where  Father  McColgan  gave  him  a 
hospitable  reception.  In  the  same  year,  Father  Raymond, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  St.  Charles'  College,  was  recalled 
to  France.  Messrs.  Smith  and  Kelly,  veteran  members 
of  St.  Mary's  faculty,  died,  the  former  on  February  25, 
1851,  after  twenty-seven  years'  service  as  teacher  of  pen- 
manship, and  the  latter,  after  having  been  professor  of  mu- 

1  Three  days  afterwards,  the  following  announcement  appeared  in  the 
"Catholic  Mirror"  of  Baltimore :  "The  President  and  Faculty  of  St. 
Mary's  College  respectfully  inform  the  public  that  the  collegiate  and 
academic  departments  of  this  Institution  will  be  permanently  closed  for 
the  future.  The  members  of  the  society  will  hereafter,  in  conformity 
with  the  spirit  and  object  of  their  vocation,  devote  themselves  ex- 
clusively to  the  education  of  candidates  for  the  sacred  ministry.  The 
facilities  for  a  thorough  education  are  so  greatly  multiplied  at  this  time 
that,  it  is  believed,  the  step  which  has  been  taken  will  in  no  way  em- 
barrass the  parents  who  have  so  kindly  confided  to  the  Institution  the 
care  of  their  children. 

"For  the  liberal  encouragement  extended  to  St.  Mary's  College  to  the 
day  of  its  dissolution,  the  President  and  Faculty  take  this  occasion  to 
tender  their  most  grateful  acknowledgments." 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND   DUBRETTL       297 

sic  for  twenty-nine  years,  on  August  26,  1852.  The  Rev. 
Father  Voirdye,  who  had  taught  at  the  college,  left  for 
Montreal  on  September  6  of  the  same  year.  But  the 
most  distinguished  member  of  the  faculty  who  was  lost 
to  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  by  the  abandonment  of  St. 
Mary's  College  was  M.  Verot.  During  the  administration 
of  M.  Lhomme,  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  had  also  lost  by 
death  the  Rev.  Peter  Fredet.  On  the  other  hand,  seven 
new  members  had  arrived  from  France,  namely,  MM. 
Joseph  P.  Dubreul,  Stanislas  Ferte,  Alphonse  Flammant, 
Francis  Dissez,  John  Baptist  Menu,  R.  Blanc  and  H.  M. 
Chapuis.  Therefore  at  the  time  of  M.  Lhomme's  death 
there  were  eleven  Sulpicians  in  the  United  States. 

The  relief  of  the  seminarians  from  the  duty  of  teach- 
ing in  the  lower  classes  of  the  college  was  one  of  the  re- 
forms which  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice,  both  in  France 
and  in  America,  had  especially  sought  to  effect  by  aban- 
doning St.  Mary's  College.  In  the  main,  this  object  was 
achieved,  though  occasionally  we  meet  teachers  in  St 
Charles'  who  were  at  the  same  time  students  of  theology  at 
the  seminary.  Such  was  Mr.  E.  Caton,  who,  with  Father 
Jenkins,  was  one  of  the  first  teachers  in  the  new  college. 
Such  were  also  T.  M.  A.  Burke,  later  Bishop  of  Albany, 
Placide  Chapelle,  later  Archbishop  of  New  Orleans,  Rev. 
J.  Haug,  Rev.  F.  X.  McKenny,  Rev.  D.  E.  Maher,  Rev. 
G.  J.  Kraft  of  Charleston,  Rev.  H.  C.  Pouget,  now  in  the 
Canal  Zone  at  Panama,  and  Rev.  D.  S.  Kelly,  of  the  Dio- 
cese of  Trenton.  It  may,  therefore,  be  said  that  the  sup- 
pression of  St  Mary's  College  practically  accomplished 
the  liberation  of  the  seminarians  from  the  duty  of  teach- 
ing. 

During  M.  Lhomme's  rule  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  was 
reinforced  by  M.  Alphonse  Flammant,  a  man  who  com- 
bined holiness  with  learning,  and,  in  addition  to  profound 
scholarship,  had  the  gift  of  being  an  interesting  and  clear 


298  THE    STJLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

teacher.  What  enhanced  his  popularity  was  the  fact  that 
he  performed  his  duties  zealously  and  successfully,  though 
throughout  his  career  at  the  seminary  (1856-62),  he  was  a 
sufferer  from  lung  disease.  Archbishop  Keane  speaks 
of  him  with  warm  admiration,  and  relates  that  it  was  M. 
ITlammant  who  drew  his  attention  to  the  love  men  owe  to 
their  country  as  a  virtue  and  as  a  duty  to  God.  Although 
M.  Flammant's  career  was  cut  short  by  a  premature  death, 
another  new-comer  graced  the  faculty  of  St.  Mary's  for 
many  years.  M.  Dissez  arrived  in  Baltimore  in  1857; 
taught  philosophy  at  the  seminary  till  1862;  moral  the- 
ology till  1896,  and  pastoral  theology  until  a  few  months 
before  his  death  in  1908.  He  celebrated  his  golden  jubi- 
lee, beloved  and  honored  by  his  pupils,  respected  by  four 
successive  Archbishops  of  Baltimore  and  relied  on  as  the 
wise  and  trusted  counsellor  of  four  superiors  of  his  Com- 
pany. He  was  a  gentle,  God-fearing  man,  who,  because 
of  his  wisdom  and  charity,  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  sev- 
eral generations  of  priests  in  the  United  States. 

The  abolition  of  St.  Mary's  College  naturally  affected 
the  curriculum  of  the  seminary.  During  M.  Lhomme's 
administration,  the  course  of  studies  assumed  the  following 
form.  The  theologians  had  an  hour's  lesson  in  moral  the- 
ology every  day  except  Sunday  and  Thursday,  and  a  lec- 
ture on  dogma  on  the  same  days  at  4  o'clock  p.  m.  After 
1859,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Visitors,  MM.  Faillon  and 
Guitter,  a  lecture  on  Holy  Scripture  was  given  on  Sundays 
at  11  a.  m.,  and  another  on  Thursdays  at  9  a.  m.  One  hour 
was  assigned  to  liturgy  on  Wednesdays  at  11.15,  and  three 
half  hours  to  chant  on  Mondays,  Tuesdays  and  Fridays  at 
2  p.  m.  Pastoral  theology  was  the  subject  taught  at  11.15 
on  Tuesdays  and  Fridays.  During  the  vacations  the  semi- 
narians were  required  to  write  a  sermon  on  a  designated 
subject,  which  they  were  to  bring  back  in  September.  The 
students  studying  philosophy  attended  two  lectures  daily, 


op  MM  tI[OMME 


couree  of 
timely. 
students 


also 


"nqueationably 


Proved  to  be  of 


f  tho 
W°rk'  and  thi» 


time  carefully  looked  , 

inspire  the  piety  and 
customary  in  Franf 

g-  in  tl  gardlnor 

emed  by  the  Sulpiciana  ,nd  in 

up  in  the  garden 

by  Archbifhop 
buildings. 


the 


Wh°  "'  thesame 

Calculat<xl  to 
men.    It  wag 


th 
t  8em'nar'e9 

8Uch  a  9tatue  w"  "* 


the 


seven 


on  Aueiisf-  99 
' 


the 
accompanied 

for  9 


disposal  of 
to 


th 


M" 


general.    He  died  at  Opelousas  in 


300  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  reorganization  of  the  Maryland  Sulpician  colony 
along  the  lines  laid  down  by  M.  Olier  was  watched  with 
great  interest  by  their  French  brethren,  and  especially  M. 
de  Courson.  The  Visitor  who  had  represented  the  superior 
general  in  1849  was  M.  Faillon,  who  had  been  accompanied 
by  M.  Guitter.  They  had  inaugurated  the  action  which 
led  to  M.  Deluol's  recall  and  the  suppression  of  St.  Mary's 
College,  and  returned  to  France  in  1850  by  way  of  New 
York.  M.  Lhomme  escorted  the  visitors  to  pay  their  re- 
spects to  Archbishop  Hughes,  who  spoke  to  them  of  a 
plan  to  establish  a  central  seminary,  where  a  few  students 
would  make  higher  studies,  each  bishop  keeping  his  own 
seminary  for  ordinary  students.  The  times  proved  un- 
favorable to  this  project,  which  was  not  then  further  pur- 
sued.1 

Four  years  later,  on  November  8th,  we  find  M.  Faillon 
again  at  Baltimore,  this  time  accompanied  by  M.  Barbarin. 
The  buildings  of  St.  Mary's  College  were  useless  as  they 
then  stood,  and  it  was  therefore  proposed  to  modify  them 
for  the  use  of  the  seminarians.  M.  Faillon,  who  seems  to 
have  been  somewhat  of  an  architect,  undertook  to  prepare 
the  plans  for  these  changes  and  soon  after  his  arrival  sub- 
mitted them  to  the  professors  of  the  seminary.  They  were 
accepted  and  M.  Lhomme  records  in  his  diary  that  the  con- 
tractor, a  Mr.  Forbes,  began  the  changes  on  December  7, 
1854.  On  January  11,  of  the  next  year,  the  trustees  of  St. 
Charles'  College,  which  was  beginning  to  be  a  prosperous 
institution,  assembled  to  meet  the  Visitor.  He  suggested 
to  them  a  set  of  rules  for  the  new  college,  which  were 
accepted  without  modification.  Meantime,  the  alteration 
of  the  old  college  buildings  for  seminary  purposes,  the  cost 
of  which  was  $25,000,  proceeded  without  interruption,  and 
in  July,  1855,  they  were  ready  for  occupancy.  M.  Faillon, 
who  had  gone  to  Montreal  early  in  the  year,  came  back 

1  See  diary  of  M.  Lhomme  in  the  archives  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary. 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    L1IOMME    AND   DDBREUL       301 

for  the  dedication  of  the  new  seminary  by  Archbishop  Ken- 
rick  on  July  24.  On  this  occasion,  M.  Faillon  was  accom- 
panied by  M.  Lenoir. 

About  this  time,  M.  Lhomme  seems  to  have  been  con- 
cerned with  the  question  of  the  tenure  of  the  seminary 
property  which  had  hitherto  been  held  in  the  name  of  the 
superiors  of  the  Seminary,  and  he  consulted  on  this  subject 
Chief  Justice  Taney  and  Mr.  Scott,  as  well  as  the  superior 
general  in  Paris.  The  matter  was  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  Maryland  Legislature  of  1860,  which  thereupon,  un- 
der date  of  February  17,  1860,  passed  the  following  law: 

"Section  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
Maryland,  that  the  Associated  professors  of  the  Seminary 
of  learning,  heretofore  established  by  the  act  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  Maryland,  passed  November  session  1804, 
chapter  71,  and  incorporated  by  the  act  of  December  ses- 
sion 1838,  chapter  137,  be  and  they  are  hereby  authorized 
to  change  the  name  of  the  said  corporation  from  that  of  the 
Associated  Professors  of  Saint  Mary's  College  in  the  city 
of  Baltimore,  to  that  of  the  Associated  Professors  of  Saint 
Mary's  Seminary  in  Baltimore  City. 

"Section  2.  And  be  it  enacted,  that  the  said  corporation 
by  its  new  name  shall  hold,  possess  and  enjoy  and  exercise 
all  the  rights,  powers,  authority  and  privileges  heretofore 
granted  and  confirmed  by  and  under  the  said  acts  of  1804, 
chapter  71,  and  1838,  chapter  137. 

"Section  8.  And  be  it  enacted,  that  the  said  corporation 
by  its  new  name  hereby  given  shall  have  power  and  author- 
ity to  make  and  use  a  common  seal,  and  the  same  to  break, 
alter  and  renew  at  pleasure,  to  pass  by-laws  and  make  rules 
and  regulations  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  governing  body, 
and  the  same  to  alter  and  change  at  pleasure,  to  purchase, 
receive,  take  and  hold  by  deed,  gift,  devise  or  otherwise, 
any  estate  and  property  whatsoever,  real  and  personal,  and 


302  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  same  or  any  part  thereof,  to  sell,  transfer,  lease  or  con- 
vey ;  to  sue  and  to  be  sued,  and  in  the  new  name  of  the  said 
corporation,  to  collect  any  debts  due  or  owing  to  the  cor- 
poration by  its  former  name;  provided,  however,  that  the 
annual  income  of  the  said  corporation  from  any  estate  or 
property  heretofore  or  hereafter  to  be  acquired  by  way 
of  rents  or  interest,  shall  not  exceed  the  annual  sum  of 
$18,000. 

"Section  4.  And  be  it  enacted,  that  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Maryland  may  at  any  time  hereafter  amend, 
alter  or  repeal  this  Act." 

Another  plan  suggested  by  the  installation  of  the  semi- 
nary in  the  college  building  was  the  separation  of  the  stu- 
dents of  philosophy  from  those  of  theology.  This  was 
tried  as  an  experiment  in  September,  1857,  but  given  up 
as  unpractical.  It  was  also  during  the  administration  of 
M.  Lhomme  that  the  retreat  of  the  diocesan  clergy  took 
place  for  the  first  time  in  the  seminary. 

In  September,  1860,  according  to  a  letter  sent  by  M!. 
Lhomme  to  the  Paris  superior,  he  had  been  obliged,  prob- 
ably owing  to  ill-health,  to  turn  over  the  duties  of  su- 
perior to  M.  Dubreul,  and  the  letter  requests  that  M.  Du- 
breul  be  appointed  to  the  office,  the  duties  of  which  he  was 
already  performing.  M.  Lhomme's  strength  sank  rapidly 
and  on  September  27  the  superior,  though  but  sixty-six 
years  of  age,  was  on  the  point  of  death.  M.  Dubreul  gave 
him  the  last  consolations  of  the  Church.  The  students 
of  the  seminary  had  been  admitted  to  the  death-cham- 
ber, where  he  gave  them  his  last  blessing,  and  the  beloved 
superior  peacefully  expired.  The  seminarians  watched  and 
prayed  beside  the  body,  among  the  watchers  being  the 
present  Archbishop  of  Baltimore.  Archbishop  Kenrick 
delivered  the  funeral  eulogy. 

In  accordance  with  M.  Lhomme's  last  request,  M.  Du- 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND   DUBREUL       303 

breul  was  named  his  successor  on  December  18,  1860.  He 
was  forty-four  years  old  at  the  time  of  his  appointment, 
having  been  born  at  St-Etienne  in  the  Diocese  of  Lyons  on 
November  8,  1814.  He  was  educated  at  first  in  the  lower 
seminary  of  Monistrol,  studied  philosophy  at  Aix,  and 
theology  at  the  Seminary  of  St.  Irenseus  at  Lyons  and  at 
Paris.  After  completing  his  theological  studies  and  no- 
vitiate, he  was  entrusted  with  the  professorship  of  dogma  in 
the  seminary  of  Orleans  from  1839  to  1850,  in  which  year 
he  was  sent  to  Baltimore,  on  his  arrival  being  made  vice- 
president  of  St.  Mary's  College  and  professor  of  philoso- 
phy. From  the  start,  he  took  his  place  as  one  of  the  most 
trusted  counsellors  of  M.  Lhomme.  He  was  not  only  an 
excellent  scholar  but  a  skilful  and  active  man  of  affairs. 
Of  an  authoritative  presence,  with  bold  and  intelligent  fea- 
tures, his  appearance  did  justice  to  his  qualities  of  heart 
and  mind.  He  stood  in  need  of  all  his  vigor  and  ability, 
for  he  was  called  upon  to  guide  the  American  Society  of  St. 
Sulpice  through  a  period  of  storm  and  stress. 

About  a  fortnight  after  M.  Lhomme's  death,  and  six 
weeks  before  the  succession  of  M.  Dubreul,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  He  had 
hardly  been  chosen  chief  magistrate  before  the  great  Amer- 
ican Civil  War  began  to  cast  its  dark  shadows  over  the 
land.  The  Company  of  St.  Sulpice  had,  from  the  start, 
been  distinguished  for  its  loyal  and  enthusiastic  devotion 
to  the  American  Republic.  Like  the  Catholic  Church  in 
the  United  States,  it  had  never  been  identified  with  the 
spirit  of  sectionalism  or  party.  St  Mary's  Seminary  had 
its  home  in  Maryland,  but  drew  the  larger  part  of  its  stu- 
dents from  the  Northern  States ;  its  professors,  while  en- 
thusiastically patriotic,  abstained  scrupulously  from  party 
politics.  Yet  the  excitement  and  disturbances  of  the  day 
could  not  fail  to  affect  the  peaceful  abode  of  the  Sulpician 
professors  and  their  institution.  It  is  a  violent  transition 


304:  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

in  the  diary  of  M.  Dubreul  from  the  account  of  a  retreat 
given  by  Father  Piot  to  the  servants  of  the  seminary  to  the 
record,  a  few  pages  further  on,  under  date  of  April  19,  of 
almost  the  first  symptoms  marking  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War.  On  that  date,  M.  Dubreul's  entry  reads:  "The 
mob  attacked  the  Massachusetts  Regiment  in  Pratt  Street. 
Bridges  and  railroads  destroyed,  also  telegraph  inter- 
rupted." Two  days  later  the  record  is :  "Great  alarm  in 
the  city.  All  under  arms;  public  services  suspended." 
Meantime,  the  students  and  teachers  from  the  two  Sulpi- 
cian  institutions  quietly  pursued  their  studies,  while  the 
political  sky  became  more  and  more  clouded,  until  the 
storm  burst  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  these  homes 
of  peace  and  scholarship.  On  June  29,  M.  Dubreul  pithily 
sets  down:  "Invasion  of  Maryland  by  Confederates;  the 
Seminarians  are  hastily  sent  home.  The  day  after,  mar- 
tial law  prevails.  No  pass  is  given.  St.  Charles'  students 
were  also  summarily  dismissed." 

It  is  evident  that  even  so  peaceful  a  community  as  the 
Sulpicians  and  their  proteges  did  not  escape  the  storms 
and  alarms  of  the  Civil  War.  Still,  when  we  consider  the 
violence  and  duration  of  this  civil  tempest,  it  is  remarkable 
how  quickly  its  force  was  spent,  as  far  as  concerned  St. 
Mary's  and  St.  Charles'.  In  September,  1861,  Father  Du- 
breul remarks  that  the  year's  session  began  "with  a  greater 
number  of  seminarians  than  we  expected  in  the  time  of 
war."  The  annals  of  the  college  inform  us  that  in  1861 
eight  students  entered,  three  from  New  York,  two  from 
Hartford,  one  from  Florida,  one  without  diocesan  affilia- 
tion. It  is  remarkable  that,  with  Civil  War  raging  in  the 
country,  while  the  Baltimore  seminary  did  not  have  one 
recruit  from  the  home  diocese,  it  had  several  from  the 
New  England,  the  Middle  States  and  Florida.  It  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  all  of  these  were  of  foreign  birth.  In 
1863  thirty-two  entered  the  seminary,  ten  of  whom  were 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND   DUBREUL      305 

born  in  the  United  States,  and  in  1865  twenty-seven  en- 
tered, four  of  them  native-born.  In  1866  there  were  fifteen 
new  students,  while  in  1867  the  number  suddenly  jumps 
to  forty-eight.  No  doubt  the  Civil  War  retarded  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  the  growth  of  the  seminary,  but  its  baneful 
effects  passed  away  in  a  very  short  time. 

If  we  consult  the  list  of  students  entered  at  St.  Charles', 
we  meet  with  a  similar  story.  In  1860,  the  year  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  the  entering  class  num- 
bered forty-six;  in  1861,  twenty-six;  in  1862,  forty-three; 
in  1863,  forty-nine;  in  1864,  fifty,  and  in  1865,  seventy. 
At  St.  Charles',  too,  the  students  came,  as  before  the  war, 
not  only  from  the  Baltimore  diocese,  but  also  in  great 
numbers  from  the  New  England  and  Middle  States.  It 
is  certainly  an  eloquent  testimony  to  the  freedom  from 
sectional  spirit,  to  find  young  men  from  the  Eastern,  Mid- 
dle and  Southern  States  assembling  peacefully  in  these 
hallowed  temples  of  learning,  undisturbed  by  the  alarms 
and  dangers  of  war.  It  is  gratifying  also,  peace  having 
once  more  settled  upon  the  country,  to  see  the  seminary 
and  college  grow  and  prosper  as  never  before. 

The  Sulpicians,  however,  were  not  to  escape  altogether 
the  consequences  of  the  war,  for  in  December,  1863,  two 
of  their  members,  MM.  Dissez  and  Lequerre,  were  drafted 
into  the  army.  M.  Dubreul  does  not  tell  us  how  they  es- 
caped military  service,  but  the  probability  is  that  they 
were  not  yet  naturalized.  In  July,  1864,  General  Wal- 
lace's retreat  from  Monocacy  caused  a  panic,  which,  how- 
ever, did  not  prevent  some  of  the  seminarians  from  mak- 
ing their  way  to  St.  Charles'.  On  the  way,  they  met  some 
of  the  scattered  soldiers.  Even  after  the  close  of  the  war, 
St.  Charles'  suffered  from  its  effects.  In  November,  1865, 
an  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  broke  out,  which  became  so 
violent  that  all  the  students  had  to  be  dismissed  to  their 
homes.  M.  Dubreul  hastened  to  the  college  and  found  that 


306  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  fever  had  been  brought  into  the  institution  by  a  stu- 
dent who  had  served  in  the  army.  The  following  spring, 
on  April  17,  the  community  of  St.  Mary's  was  startled  by 
the  announcement  of  President  Lincoln's  assassination. 
The  seminary,  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in 
Baltimore,  were  greatly  distressed  by  this  national  misfor- 
tune. Five  days  later,  when  the  body  of  the  President 
passed  through  Baltimore,  on  its  way  to  its  last  resting 
place,  the  seminary  students  joined  the  clergy  of  the  arch- 
diocese, led  by  the  vicar  general,  Dr.  Coskery,  who  escorted 
the  remains  through  the  streets  of  the  city. 

If  the  excitement  and  troubles  of  the  Civil  War  were  a 
bitter  trial  to  M.  Dubreul  and  his  confreres,  the  loss  of 
Archbishop  Kenrick,  who  was  found  dead  in  his  bed  on 
the  morning  of  July  8,  1863,  was  no  less  sore  a  blow.  The 
archbishop  had  been  a  wise  and  faithful  friend  of  the  So- 
ciety of  St.  Sulpice.  His  death  at  the  critical  time  of  the 
Civil  War  was  felt  by  all  the  Catholics  in  the  United 
States,  but  by  none  more  than  the  Sulpician  superior,  who 
was  just  on  the  point  of  starting  for  New  York.  Here  he 
met  Archbishop  Hughes,  who  was  on  the  eve  of  tranquilliz- 
ing the  draft  riots.  That  energetic  prelate  was  then  mak- 
ing changes  in  his  diocesan  seminary  and  had  applied  to 
M.  Carriere,  the  Sulpician  superior,  in  Paris,  that  his 
Company  might  take  charge  of  the  New  York  institution 
for  training  the  clergy.  But  M.  Carriere  did  not  accept 
the  Archbishop's  invitation  and  the  seminary  passed  into 
the  hands  of  a  Belgian  faculty. 

We  now  pass  to  the  internal  affairs  of  the  seminary  dur- 
ing M.  Dubreul's  administration.  On  taking  the  reins  of 
government  he  had  associated  with  him  MM.  Stanislas 
Ferte,  Alphonse  Flammant,  Frangois  Dissez  and  Urban 
Lequerre.  Of  these  gentlemen,  M.  Ferte  was  promoted 
to  the  presidency  of  St.  Charles'  College  after  the  death 
of  Father  Jenkins  in  1869,  which  position  he  filled  with 


VKRY  REV.  JOSEPH  P.u'i.  I)i  BRKI  i.. 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND   DUBREUL,      307 

great  ability  and  success.  M.  Lequerre,  the  treasurer  of 
the  seminary,  after  being  excused  from  the  military  serv- 
ice for  which  he  had  been  drafted,  taught  in  the  seminary 
till  1871.  M.  Guilbaud,  who  arrived  from  France  in 
December,  1862,  joined  the  faculty  of  St.  Charles'.  In 
1864  he  was  detailed  to  teach  dogma  in  St.  Mary's,  but 
returned  to  St.  Charles'  in  1870.  Of  the  professors  who 
were  at  the  seminary  for  a  short  period,  we  will  mention 
only  M.  Rince,  who  came  from  France  in  1867,  and  died 
suddenly  two  years  afterwards,  in  consequence  of  a  hem- 
orrhage. After  M.  Rince's  death,  M.  Dujarie  took  his 
place  as  teacher  of  philosophy  and  also  taught  Sacred 
Scripture.  He  remained  at  St.  Mary's  only  two  years. 

The  student  body,  which  in  1861,  at  the  beginning  of 
M.  Dubreul's  administration,  numbered  only  thirty-five,  is 
reported  at  ninety-two  in  1878,  having  tripled  in  eighteen 
years.  As  in  the  past,  it  included  young  men  from  all 
parts  of  the  United  States,  but  especially  from  New  Eng- 
land. In  the  early  years  of  M.  Dubreul's  rule,  the  great 
majority  were  of  foreign  birth.  However,  as  the  children 
of  the  great  wave  of  immigration  which  set  in  a  little  be- 
fore 1850  reached  the  student  age,  native  Americans  began 
to  form  the  majority  of  the  seminarians.  St.  Mary's  con- 
tinued to  furnish  a  fair  proportion  of  the  bishops  from 
among  the  young  Levites  of  this  period,  the  most  noted 
representative  being  the  distinguished  Archbishop  of  Balti- 
more, Cardinal  Gibbons,  who  was  ordained  in  July,  1861. 
He  had  attracted  the  attention  of  his  fellow-students  and 
teachers  in  the  days  of  M.  Lhomme ;  his  merits  were  soon 
appreciated  by  Archbishops  Spalding  and  Bayley,  and 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four  we  find  him  appointed  Vicar 
Apostolic  of  North  Carolina.  While  holding  this  office  he 
published  the  book,  "The  Faith  of  Our  Fathers,"  which  has 
made  his  name  a  household-word  among  the  Catholics  of 
the  United  States  and  familiar  to  non-Catholics  also.  Two 


308        ;THE  SULPICIANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

years  after  the  work  appeared,  its  author  was  made  Bishop 
of  Richmond,  and,  in  May,  1877,  designated  Coadjutor 
Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  succeeding  Archbishop  Bayley 
on  the  death  of  that  prelate  five  months  afterwards.  He 
was  raised  to  the  cardinalate  in  1886. 

Another  student  of  St.  Mary's  in  the  days  of  M.  Du- 
breul  who  later  attained  prominence  was  Archbishop 
Keane,  formerly  of  Dubuque,  the  first  president  of  the 
Catholic  University  of  America  and  an  orator  renowned 
for  his  eloquence.  Archbishop  Placide  Louis  Chapelle,  a 
theologian  of  repute,  after  ruling  the  Archdiocese  of  Santa 
Fe,  was  transferred  to  New  Orleans.  After  the  Spanish- 
American  war  he  was  sent  to  the  Philippines  as  papal  dele- 
gate. Rev.  Mark  S.  Gross  devoted  his  life  to  the  missions 
of  North  Carolina.  In  1880  he  was  appointed  Bishop  and 
Vicar  Apostolic  of  North  Carolina,  but  he  declined  the 
honor.  Archbishop  John  Joseph  Kain  of  St.  Louis  was 
ordained  from  St.  Mary's  in  1866,  became  Bishop  of 
Wheeling  in  1875,  and  governed  the  Archdiocese  of  St. 
Louis  from  1895  to  1903. 

In  1866,  at  the  request  of  Archbishop  Spalding,  M. 
Dubreul  organized  in  the  seminary  a  course  of  lectures 
on  the  questions  of  the  day,  which  were  delivered  by  the 
professors  of  the  institution.  In  the  same  year  two  ser- 
mons began  to  be  required  of  the  students,  the  second  to 
be  delivered  in  the  second  half  of  the  scholastic  year. 

The  present  Bishop  of  Richmond,  Right  Reverend  Denis 
J.  O'Connell,  was  graduated  in  1877,  was  rector  of  the 
American  College,  Rome,  president  of  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity, and  then  auxiliary  Bishop  of  San  Francisco.  Bish- 
ops T.  M.  A.  Burke,  of  Albany,  and  Jeremiah  O' Sullivan, 
of  Mobile,  belonged  respectively  to  the  classes  of  1864 
and  of  1868.  Since  1823  St.  Mary's  Seminary  had  been 
authorized  by  the  pope  to  confer  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Sacred  Theology,  but  previous  to  M.  Dubreul's  time  it  had 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LUOMME    AND   DUBREUL      309 

rarely  conferred  this  title.  M.  Dubreul,  however,  saw  rea- 
son to  depart  from  this  policy,  and  on  June  19,  1868,  con- 
ferred the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  on  the  Rev. 
Placide  Louis  Chapelle,  In  October,  1871,  Rev.  M. 
J.  Joerger  was  honored  with  the  same  title,  which  was 
also  bestowed  on  Rev.  C.  Reilly  of  Detroit,  on  June  23, 
1875.  In  each  of  these  cases  the  candidate  was  rigidly 
examined  by  the  faculty  of  St  Mary's  and  M.  Dubreul 
carefully  notes  in  his  diary  the  result  of  the  examination. 

Besides  exhibiting  strictness  in  bestowing  the  honors  of 
his  institution,  M.  Dubreul  was  also  a  forceful  discipli- 
narian. This,  however,  did  not  lead  him  to  neglect  the 
pleasanter  duties  of  his  position.  While  dignified,  he  was, 
especially  during  his  later  days,  the  kind-hearted  friend 
of  all  his  professors  and  students.  We  cannot  read  without 
emotion  the  words  with  which  he  recommends  his  proteges 
to  Divine  Providence.  Thus,  under  date  of  December  9, 
1868,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Paris,  he  writes: 
"May  Jesus  and  Mary  watch  over  my  dear  confreres  and 
all  the  beloved  community."  And  again  on  August  25, 
1869:  "I  was  in  our  dear  chapel,  returning  thanks  to 
Our  Lord  and  His  Blessed  Mother  for  my  safe  return. 
I  begged  Him  to  bless  again  all  my  efforts  for  the  pro- 
motion of  projects  so  dear  to  my  heart"  The  same  ring 
of  fatherly  friendship  strikes  us  when  he  records  how  he 
and  his  seminarians  had  made  an  excursion  to  the  Winans 
Villa  at  Crimea  or  the  Cromwells'  country  house  at  Spring 
Garden. 

In  1868  the  Sulpician  community  celebrated  a  domes- 
tic event  which  naturally  gave  great  joy  to  the  hearts  of 
these  faithful  instructors.  The  preparatory  Seminary  of 
St  Charles  had  existed  for  well  nigh  twenty  years  with- 
out any  of  its  graduates  having  joined  the  Company  of 
St  Sulpice.  In  1868,  however,  Mr.  James  A.  McCallen,  a 
student  of  the  seminary  who,  a  few  years  before,  had  com- 


310  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

pleted  his  course  at  St.  Charles',  was  proposed  by  M. 
Dubreul  for  membership  in  the  Sulpician  Company.  The 
other  professors  approved  of  the  application  and  M.  Du- 
breul, who  visited  Europe  in  that  year,  took  the  young  ap- 
plicant with  him  to  Issy.  He  was  raised  to  the  priest- 
hood in  Paris  two  years  later,  and  then  returned  to  the 
United  States,  where  he  was  long  a  much-esteemed  mem- 
ber of  the  Society. 

It  has  been  shown  that  in  1855,  under  the  superiorship 
of  M.  Lhomme,  the  buildings  of  St.  Mary's  College  had 
been  altered  to  meet  the  new  use  to  which  they  were  to 
be  put,  that  of  a  seminary.  These  changes,  although  re- 
garded at  the  time  as  suitable  and  convenient,  soon  became 
inadequate,  owing  to  the  growth  of  the  seminary  and  the 
development  of  the  seminary  studies. 

The  material  and  spiritual  care  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary 
thus  engrossed  the  attention  and  labors  of  its  zealous  su- 
perior. The  projected  new  buildings  were  finished  and 
promised  much  relief  to  the  superior  and  the  institution. 
But  M.  Dubreul  was  not  fated  to  reap  the  fruit  of  his 
efforts.  Though  originally  his  health  had  been  far  from 
sturdy,  his  strength  gradually  improved  and  promised  a 
long  life.  However,  on  April  18,  1878,  while  assisting  in 
the  celebration  of  Holy  Week,  the  apparently  vigorous  man 
was  smitten  by  pneumonia  and  a  few  days  sufficed  to  con- 
sign him  to  the  grave.  The  funeral  ceremony  brought  a 
great  throng  of  prelates,  priests  and  other  friends  to  the 
cathedral,  where  Archbishop  Gibbons  celebrated  the  re- 
quiem. All  were  full  of  the  praises  of  the  deceased  su- 
perior, and  felt  that  they  were  paying  the  last  honors  to 
a  man  of  unusual  merit.  The  newly  appointed  Bishop 
Keane  of  Richmond  enumerated  his  admirable  qualities 
in  eloquent  words,  declaring  that  under  his  administration 
St.  Mary's  Seminary  not  only  maintained  the  high  stand- 
ing it  had  acquired  under  his  predecessors,  but  witnessed 


JAMKS  (.'AKDINAI.  GIBBONS, 
Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 


ADMINISTRATIONS    OF    MM.    LHOMME    AND   DUBREUL       311 

an  increase  of  its  prosperity  and  an  enhancement  of  its 
reputation,  despite  the  rise  of  rival  institutions  through- 
out the  country.  To-day,  he  added,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
clergy,  this  institution  remains  the  first  and  best  for  the 
training  of  candidates  for  the  priesthood  in  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  M.  MAGNLEN 

The  administrations  of  MM.  Lhomme  and  Dubreul 
mark  the  transition  to  a  new  period  in  the  history  of  St. 
Mary's  Seminary.  The  new,  or  rather  the  old,  policy  of 
the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice,  to  which  had  been  sacrificed 
several  flourishing  institutions,  and  last  of  all  St.  Mary's 
College,  required  new  arrangements  and  new  accommoda- 
tions, both  material  and  intellectual.  The  creation  and 
ordering  of  these  new  means  and  methods  were  the  work 
of  MM.  Lhomme  and  Dubreul,  and  the  Society  of  St.  Sul- 
pice was  fortunate  in  having  men  of  such  prudence  and 
energy  to  guide  the  Sulpician  ship  during  this  part  of 
its  voyage.  The  new  policy,  without  being  a  contradiction 
of  the  old,  was  to  make  for  progress  and  development,  and 
MM.  Lhomme  and  Dubreul  both  realized  that  the  change 
must  not  be  sudden  and  radical,  but  gradual  and  conserva- 
tive. New  methods  might  be  required,  and  new  apparatus. 
Besides  the  return  to  the  ideals  of  Olier  and  Emery,  the 
progress  of  the  country  and  of  theological  science  might 
demand  new  instruments  and  new  resources.  While  M. 
Lhomme  and  M.  Dubreul  were  admirably  preserving  all 
that  had  proved  so  effective  and  were  slowly  and  modestly 
preparing  new  means  for  satisfying  the  new  and,  we  may 
add,  the  ever  old,  requirements  of  the  Church,  Provi- 
dence had  chosen  another  man  to  undertake  the  new  du- 
ties, to  solve  the  fresh  problems,  and  to  supply  the  de- 
mands of  the  waning  nineteenth  century. 

This  man  was  Alphonse  Magnien,  the  sixth  superior 

312 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    If.    MAONIEN  313 

of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  He  was  a  native  of  Bleymard, 
where  he  was  born  on  June  9,  1837,  being  the  son  of 
an  officer  in  the  French  gendarmerie.  His  father's  trans- 
fer to  another  county  seat,  Saint-Chely-d'Apcher,  gave 
the  boy  the  advantage  of  an  excellent  provincial  school, 
conducted  by  the  Christian  Brothers,  where  he  soon 
became  known  for  his  talents.  The  cure  of  the  place 
advised  the  parents  to  give  the  lad,  who  had  already 
shown  signs  of  a  vocation,  a  classical  education,  and 
they  sent  him  to  the  lower  seminary  at  Chirac,  While 
the  youth  pursued  his  studies  here,  the  school  was  vis- 
ited by  the  Bishop  of  Orleans,  the  great  Monseigneur 
Dupanloup,  whose  stirring  address  awoke,  or  rather  con- 
firmed, young  Magnien's  resolve  to  devote  himself  to  the 
service  of  God.  From  Chirac,  therefore,  he  betook  him- 
self in  1857  to  the  seminary  at  Orleans,  and  after  a  suc- 
cessful course  of  philosophical  and  theological  studies, 
was  raised  to  the  priesthood  in  June,  1862.  While  at 
Orleans,  his  piety  and  ability  and  the  influence  which  he 
exercised  among  his  fellow-students  naturally  attracted 
him  to  the  teaching  profession,  and  he  consulted  his  ven- 
erable director,  M.  Benech,  with  a  view  to  associating 
himself  with  the  gentlemen  of  St  Sulpice.  "This  was 
also  my  desire,"  said  his  adviser,  "but  I  wished  that  the 
inspiration  should  come  from  above." 

Magnien's  aspirations,  however,  were  not  to  be  grati- 
fied immediately.  Bishop  Dupanloup  insisted  that  he 
should  first  repay  the  diocese  by  some  years  of  service, 
and  immediately  after  his  ordination  sent  him  to  labor 
as  assistant  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mark,  in  the  suburbs  of 
Orleans.  The  following  fall  he  was  sent  to  the  lower 
seminary  of  La-Chapelle-St-Mesmin,  where  he  taught 
with  success  for  two  years.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  the 
seminary  of  Nantes,  where  he  conducted  a  course  in  sci- 
ence. In  October,  1865,  he  was  finally  permitted  to  go 


314:  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

to  the  Solitude  at  Issy,  to  make  his  novitiate  as  a  Sul- 
pician.  We  next  find  him  at  Rodez,  where  he  taught 
philosophy,  to  which  he  afterwards  joined  a  course  of 
lectures  on  Sacred  Scripture.  As  a  teacher,  he  showed 
himself  a  man  of  clear  and  brilliant  intellect,  who  grap- 
pled successfully  with  every  difficulty,  however  formida- 
ble, and  presented  his  subject  to  his  students  in  the  clear- 
est and  most  logical  manner.  This  is  the  judgment  of 
one  who  knew  him  in  early  youth  and  this  impression  he 
left  behind  him  wherever  he  taught. 

While  Magnien  was  a  student  in  the  seminary  of  Or- 
leans, M.  Dubreul,  who  was  then  visiting  France,  placed 
before  the  young  theologians  the  need  in  the  United 
States  for  zealous,  able  professors  to  prepare  the  young 
aspirants  to  the  priesthood  for  their  important  mission. 
The  American  Sulpician's  eloquent  appeal  touched  the 
heart  of  young  Magnien.  He  determined  to  give  his  life 
and  labors  to  the  American  vineyard,  and  in  1869,  after 
carefully  testing  his  plans  and  removing  all  obstacles,  he 
enlisted  for  service  under  M.  Dubreul.  When  he  arrived 
in  the  United  States  M.  Magnien  was  in  the  prime  of 
his  life.  Naturally  energetic  and  full  of  zeal,  endowed 
with  a  vigorous  physique,  possessed  of  an  agreeable  voice 
which  was  fitted  to  present  the  most  convincing  arguments 
and  to  express  the  most  touching  pathos,  a  brilliant 
speaker,  an  attractive  reasoner,  he  was  prepared  to  achieve 
success  alike  in  the  class-room,  in  the  pulpit  and  the  draw- 
ing-room. His  sympathetic  nature  readily  gained  for 
him  the  friendship  of  the  old  and  the  young,  of  the  pre- 
lates whom  he  should  serve  and  of  the  students  whom  he 
should  rule.  Withal,  he  was  a  spiritual  man,  sincerely 
pious  and  conscientious,  with  a  true  devotion  to  God,  to 
Christ  and  his  holy  Mother.  He  combined  the  intellect  of  a 
scholar  with  the  practical  facility  of  a  man  of  business.  In 
short,  his  superiors  were  well  inspired  when  they  sent  him 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    MAONIEN  315 

out  to  the  great  American  Republic  as  the  man  to  serve 
the  cause  of  the  Church  and  of  St.  Sulpice. 

On  joining  St.  Mary's  faculty  M.  Magnien  lost  no  time 
in  beginning  his  work.  He  first  filled  the  chair  of  phi- 
losophy, but  from  1871  to  1875  he  lectured  also  on  liturgy 
and  Scripture.  During  the  next  three  years  he  taught 
Scripture  and  dogma,  thus  giving  remarkable  evidence 
of  his  versatility  and  of  the  extent  of  his  learning.  In 
1878  he  was  named  superior  of  the  seminary,  but  con- 
tinued his  professorial  work  on  Scripture  till  1880,  and 
from  then  until  1886  he  was  charged  with  instructing  the 
deacons.  After  1886  the  pressure  of  the  executive  work, 
or  perhaps  considerations  of  health,  caused  him  to  con- 
fine his  occupations  strictly  to  the  functions  of  superior, 
which  gradually  became  more  varied  and  exacting. 

In  M.  Magnien  sympathy,  kindness  and  frankness  were 
inborn  characteristics.  He  was  a  man  who  gave  freely 
of  his  heart  and  his  intellect,  but  in  turn  accepted  largely 
what  was  offered  in  friendship.  His  social  and  intellec- 
tual ability  made  him  a  pleasant  companion  and  rendered 
it  easy  for  him  to  acquire  the  English  language.  He  had 
an  open  eye  for  the  good  in  whatever  was  new,  and  con- 
sequently readily  appreciated  American  manners,  prin- 
ciples and  circumstances.  In  short,  before  the  lapse  of 
many  years,  he  not  only  spoke  English,  but  spoke  it  well, 
and  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  naturalized  Ameri- 
can. As  a  result  of  his  American  sympathies,  he  not 
only  allowed  considerably  more  privileges  to  the  students, 
though  he  always  maintained  what  was  essential  in  the 
rules  of  MM.  Olier  and  Emery,  but  eliminated  much 
which  in  his  own  country  would  be  regarded  as  required 
by  tradition  and  dignity.  He  felt  that  if  he  wished  oth- 
ers to  work  with  him  and  for  him,  he  must  not  hesitate 
to  approach  them  and  explain  to  them  his  needs.  The 
realization  that  others  may  be  as  retiring  as  we  are  our- 


316  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

selves,  and  that  at  times  misplaced  modesty  may  prevent 
co-operation  and  mutual  assistance,  led  him,  when  neces- 
sary, to  forsake  his  school-room  and  his  office.  Shortly 
after  he  was  made  superior,  he  set  out  with  the  aged  and 
beloved  M.  Dissez  to  visit  at  their  homes  the  clergy  of  the 
diocese  of  Baltimore,  who  were  assured  that  each  and 
every  one  of  them  would  be  welcome  at  the  seminary  and 
treated  with  hospitality  and  cordiality.  Of  course  the 
alumni  of  St.  Mary's  had  always  received  the  utmost  con- 
sideration, but  the  friendly  familiarity  of  M.  Magnien 
added  pleasure  to  what  had  perhaps  been  hitherto  re- 
garded as  a  duty. 

While  thus  making  a  most  favorable  impression  on  the 
clergy,  he  was  equally  successful  in  gaining  the  good  will 
and  the  friendship  of  the  new  archbishop,  for  the  same 
year  brought  not  only  a  new  superior  to  the  seminary  but 
also  a  new  metropolitan  to  the  archdiocese  in  the  person 
of  Archbishop  Gibbons.  Both  dignitaries  were  nearly 
equal  in  years  and  similar  in  disposition,  both  being  stu- 
dents and  scholars  and  most  affable  gentlemen.  How 
near  and  dear  the  Sulpician  was  to  the  archbishop  is 
clearly  shown  by  the  words  which  M.  Magnien's  death 
forced  from  the  prelate's  heart.  "I  have  lost  my  right 
arm,"  said  His  Grace.  "I  had  absolute  confidence  in  his 
judgment,  his  ability  and  his  loyalty."  For  more  than 
twenty-five  years  the  friends  worked  together  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Church  and  the  diocese,  and  the  best  inter- 
ests of  their  country. 

The  favor  and  confidence  of  Archbishop  Gibbons  com- 
pleted the  equipment  of  Father  Magnien  for  the  office  of 
superior  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  Natural  talents  and 
deep  and  successful  studies,  attractive  qualities  of  heart 
and  mind  and  sympathy  with  the  country  of  his  adoption, 
qualified  him  to  guide  to  new  success  and  prosperity  the 
institution  entrusted  to  him.  Circumstances,  moreover, 


ADMINISTRATION"    OP    M.    MAONIEN  317 

favored  him  by  supplying  his  material  needs  and  the  nec- 
essary scholars,  both  of  his  own  company  and  outside  of 
it.  The  very  year  in  which  he  succeeded  M.  Debreul 
promised  a  new  era  of  success  and  development  for  the 
Sulpician  work  in  the  United  States.  Not  only  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Baltimore,  but  also  Monsignor  Conroy,  the 
Apostolic  Delegate  to  Canada,  encouraged  and  urged  him 
to  undertake  new  projects,  which  they  and  many  of  the 
American  bishops  thought  full  of  promise.  He  made 
known  his  plans  to  the  French  superiors  and  requested 
their  approval.  They  received  Father  Magnien's  pro- 
posals with  pleasure  and  sympathy  but  also  with  char- 
acteristic Sulpician  prudence.  They  promised  their  ap- 
proval and  their  aid,  but  only  after  the  Visitors,  who  were 
soon  to  go  to  the  United  States,  should  have  reported  on 
the  matter.  The  Visitors,  MM.  Bieil  and  de  Foville,  ar- 
rived in  1880  and  made  a  thorough  survey  of  the  situa- 
tion. They  agreed  that  there  must  be  an  expansion  of  the 
seminary,  requiring  both  additional  men  and  further  build- 
ings. They  saw  that  fuller  and  more  specialized  courses 
of  theology  were  demanded  by  the  times  and  the  needs  of 
the  country,  and  they  approved  of  the  scheme  of  housing 
the  department  of  philosophy  in  the  old  building  and  of 
providing  an  independent  staff  of  teachers  for  the  expand- 
ing curriculum  of  that  department. 

The  first  condition  for  the  realization  of  these  plans 
was  the  growth  in  numbers  of  the  Society  itself.  Since 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Baltimore  in- 
stitution of  the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice  had  suffered  al- 
most constantly  from  a  lack  of  members.  The  Sulpiciana 
never  hesitated  in  time  of  emergency  to  call  men  of  good 
will  to  help  them  accomplish  their  projects ;  in  fact,  when 
it  was  considered  advantageous,  the  management  of  some 
of  their  institutions  had  been  entrusted  to  the  hands  of 
non-Sulpicians.  Even  before  the  arrival  of  the  Visitors 


318  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

several  new  professors  had  come  from  France.  In  1878 
M.  Andre  joined  the  Sulpicians  at  Baltimore,  and  after 
laboring  here  for  many  years  he  returned  to  France  and 
became  the  historian  of  the  Society  of  St.  Sulpice  in  the 
United  States.  The  following  year  Baltimore  welcomed 
Father  Arsenius  Boyer,  who  was  to  be  connected  with 
the  scientific  department  of  the  seminary  for  more  than 
thirty-five  years. 

M.  Bieil,  consequent  upon  his  visitation,  proceeded 
forthwith  to  secure  new  assistance  for  the  Baltimore  breth- 
ren. He  brought  over  from  the  Solitude  M.  Hamon,  from 
Canada ;  he  brought  M.  Palin  d'Abonville,  who  had  been 
stationed  at  Montreal,  while  from  St.  Charles'  he  sum- 
moned M.  Dumont  to  help  in  the  reorganization  of 
St.  Mary's.  But  this  was  not  all:  Father  McCallen 
had  inaugurated  the  distinguished  line  of  the  Ameri- 
can disciples  of  St.  Sulpice  and  he  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  other  American  members.  In  1878  three  can- 
didates, who  were  looked  upon  as  men  of  unusual  clever- 
ness and  of  much  promising  character,  had  gone  from  Bal- 
timore to  Paris.  They  were  Edward  R.  Dyer,  now  the 
superior  of  the  American  Company  of  St.  Sulpice; 
Charles  B.  Rex,  afterwards  President  of  Brighton  Semi- 
nary, and  later  of  St.  Charles',  whose  premature  death 
prevented  him  from  filling  the  brilliant  promises  of  his 
youth,  and  that  solid  scholar,  R.  K.  Wakeham.  In  1880 
Father  Haug  left  for  Paris;  in  1885,  Father  McKenny; 
in  1887,  Fathers  Maher  and  Hogue;  in  1888,  Father 
Duffy;  in  1892,  Father  Harrig;  in  1897,  Father  Kunkel, 
and  in  1900,  Father  Doran.  All  these  gentlemen,  in  the 
course  of  little  more  than  twenty  years,  were  recruited 
for  the  Company.  When  in  the  course  of  his  administra- 
tion at  Baltimore  Father  Magnien  thought  his  forces  were 
insufficient,  he  never  failed  to  find  auxiliaries  who  were 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    MAONIEN  319 

willing  to  enlist  under  the  standard  of  St.  Sulpice  without 
becoming  members  of  the  Company. 

In  1886  MM.  Bieil  and  de  Foville  again  visited  St. 
Mary's  Seminary  as  representatives  of  the  superior  gen- 
eral. Since  their  first  visit  the  number  of  students  had 
increased  from  115  to  220.  This  growth  impressed  itself 
on  the  Sulpician  \risitors,  especially  after  the  third  Plen- 
ary Council,  the  sessions  of  which  were  held  in  the  sem- 
inary halls.  Father  Magnien  won  the  esteem  and  good  will 
of  the  bishops  generally  by  the  generous  hospitality  which 
he  extended  to  them.  Moreover,  the  student  body  secured 
the  approval  of  the  guests  by  their  demeanor  in  the  semi- 
nary and  their  correct  carriage  at  the  public  ceremonies. 

Hitherto  there  had  existed  in  the  seminary  only  a  single 
course  of  dogma  and  one  of  moral  theology.  This  meant 
that  all  the  students  of  dogma,  whether  of  the  first,  sec- 
ond or  third  year,  followed  the  same  course  of  lectures,  the 
same  being  true  for  the  students  of  morals.  The  differ- 
ent theological  treatises,  their  natural  sequence  being  dis- 
regarded, were  taken  in  hand  at  the  same  time  by  all  the 
seminarians.  Now,  however,  the  students  of  the  three 
years  were  divided  into  two  classes,  the  juniors  taking 
up  the  fundamental  or  introductory  treatises,  and  the 
seniors  pursuing  the  special  and  advanced  treatises  of 
dogmatic  and  moral  theology.  This,  of  course,  required 
a  double  teaching  staff  for  each  science. 

At  the  same  time  greater  breadth  and  solidity  were 
given  to  the  philosophical  course.  The  course  of  science, 
especially,  was  deepened  and  expanded  in  a  manner  re- 
quired by  the  progress  of  the  sciences  and  their  more 
intimate  relation  to  the  proper  studies  of  the  seminary. 
Father  Dyer,  from  1885  head  of  the  department  of  phi- 
losophy and  until  1894  professor  of  the  full  cycle  of  philo- 
sophic thought,  shaped  the  curriculum  of  his  department 
so  as  to  give  his  students  an  insight  into  both  abstract 


320  THE    STJLPICIAXS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

and  experimental  sciences,  their  findings,  degrees  of  cer- 
titude, processes  and  points  of  contact.  The  new  cur- 
riculum was  not,  of  course,  unrelated  to  the  changes  in- 
troduced into  the  studies  by  MM.  Lhomme  and  Dubreul. 
It  was  an  extending  and  perfecting  of  the  plan  of  studies 
as  it  existed  under  them,  and  this  plan  of  studies,  in  its 
turn,  was  the  curriculum  of  the  Sulpicians  such  as  it  had 
been  developed  and  tested  in  France,  especially  in  the 
Seminaries  of  Paris  and  Rodez. 

To  work  out  the  new  plan  so  as  to  secure  the  happiest 
results  with  the  minimum  of  change,  the  Baltimore  su- 
perior appealed  to  the  superior  at  Paris  for  the  assist- 
ance of  two  men  of  merit.  The  first  was  M.  A.  A.  Tan- 
querey,  a  very  learned  theologian,  who  wrote,  and  during 
his  residence  at  Baltimore  (1887-1902),  began  to  publish 
his  text-books  of  dogmatic  and  moral  theology.  Since 
their  publication,  they  have  been  adopted  in  many  semi- 
naries, not  only  in  the  United  States,  but  in  France,  Italy, 
and  other  countries  of  Europe.  The  second  was  M.  H. 
Ayrinhac,  who  has  since  become  the  superior  of  the  re- 
organized seminary  in  Menlo  Park,  California,  this  in- 
stitution having  been  placed  in  charge  of  the  Company 
of  St.  Sulpice.  However,  we  must  not  forget  to  state  that 
these  three  scholars,  Fathers  Dyer,  Tanquerey  and  Ayrin- 
hac, were  throughout  their  work  aided  by  the  advice  of 
all  the  American  Sulpicians,  that  M.  Magnien  reserved  to 
himself  the  supervision  and  deciding  voice  in  this  impor- 
tant labor  and  that  the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  and  many 
other  American  prelates  were  consulted  and  had  no  little 
part  in  giving  the  final  shape  to  the  new  plan.  We  shall 
now  proceed  to  lay  before  our  readers  the  result  of  their 
deliberations  and  consultations. 

The  entire  course  of  studies  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary 
embraced  two  years  of  philosophy  and  three  and  a  half 
years  of  theology.  The  philosophical  studies  were  ar- 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.     M.Mi.MK.N  321 

ranged  as  follows :  during  the  entire  two  years  assigned  to 
philosophy,  five  hours  a  week  or  one  hour  daily  were 
devoted  to  philosophical  studies  proper,  and  five  hours  a 
week  to  the  sciences.  The  philosophical  studies  proper 
were  classified  in  the  following  manner:  to  the  first 
year  were  assigned  logic,  psychology  and  epistemology 
or  criteriology.  The  second  year  was  devoted  to  on- 
tology, cosmology  and  theodicy  or  natural  theology, 
which  constitute  metaphysics.  It  may  be  remarked  that 
as  time  went  on  ethics  ceased  to  be  taught  in  the  two 
years  of  philosophy,  the  entire  subject  being  reserved  for 
the  theologians.  The  young  philosophers  devoted  five 
hours  a  week  for  two  years  to  various  branches  of  science, 
which  were  considered  necessary  or  useful  for  their  philo- 
sophical and  theological  studies,  the  subjects  being  taught 
by  two  professors.  The  first  year  was  given  to  physics 
and  chemistry;  the  second,  to  biology.  The  selection  of 
biology  as  exclusive  subject  for  the  second  year  of  philoso- 
phy will  be  readily  understood  because  of  its  close  rela- 
tion to  psychology  and  its  importance  in  modern  scien- 
tific apologetics. 

By  way  of  preparation  for  the  courses  of  Biblical  in- 
troduction and  exegesis,  which  were  part  of  the  course  of 
theology,  two  hours  a  week  were  assigned  during  the  first 
year  of  philosophy  to  the  study  of  Old  Testament  history, 
and  the  same  amount  of  time  in  the  second  year  to  the 
history  of  the  New  Testament.  The  philosophers  devoted 
two  hours  per  week  during  two  years  to  church  history. 
All  the  philosophical  students  attended  these  lectures  in 
a  body.  The  subject  was  divided  into  two  parts,  the  for- 
mer comprising  the  history  of  the  Church  until  the  acces- 
sion of  Gregory  VII  in  1048,  the  latter  embracing  the 
history  of  the  Church  up  to  the  present  day.  This  gen- 
eral survey  of  the  entire  field  of  Church  history  served 
to  prepare  the  students  for  a  closer  study  of  the  science 


322  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED  .STATES 

in  the  department  of  theology  by  the  topical  or  the  epoch 
method.  Philosophers  followed  a  course  of  Biblical  Greek 
and  theologians  attended  the  same  classes  of  Hebrew, 
which,  like  Greek,  was  an  elective  study.  To  plain  chant 
one  hour  a  week  was  given.  Lastly,  the  students  of  phi- 
losophy followed  for  a  brief  period  a  course  of  elocution 
parallel  to  that  followed  by  the  theologians.  The  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts  might  be  given  to  students  of  philoso- 
phy after  the  first  year.  If,  however,  for  any  reason  the 
student  failed  to  be  promoted  to  this  degree,  he  might  ob- 
tain it  at  the  end  of  his  second  year  of  philosophy. 

The  third  national  Council  of  Baltimore  ordained  that 
candidates  for  the  priesthood  should  give  four  full  years 
to  the  study  of  theology,  and  at  first  this  rule  was  strictly 
enforced  at  St.  Mary's.  In  course  of  time,  however,  owing 
to  conditions  beyond  the  control  of  the  faculty,  it  was 
thought  wise  to  limit  the  course  to  three  years  and  a 
quarter.  The  last  quarter  of  a  year  was  devoted  to 
pastoral  theology,  to  which  part  of  the  preceding  va- 
cation was  also  given.  There  remained,  therefore, 
three  full  years  of  theology,  which  were  assigned 
through  the  several  theological  studies  as  follows:  As 
had  always  been  the  custom,  two  hours  a  day  for  three 
years  were  given,  the  one  to  dogmatic,  the  other  to  moral 
theology.  The  first  year  of  dogmatic  theology  was  devoted 
to  the  study  of  the  treatises  on  religion  in  general  and  the 
Church  in  particular.  These  laid  the  foundation  of  theo- 
logical science.  During  the  second  and  third  years,  the 
students  attended  lectures  in  a  body  and  in  alternate  years 
studied  either  the  treatises  dealing  with  Faith,  the  Re- 
demption and  Incarnation  1  or  the  subject  of  Grace,  in- 
cluding the  Sacraments. 

The  course  of  moral  theology,  including  treatises  on 

1  These  are  usually  called  "De  Deo  uno  et  trino"  and  "De  Deo  creante 
et  elevante." 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    MAGNIEN  323 

Human  Acts,  on  Conscience,  on  Law,  on  Sin,  and  on  the 
theological  virtues  was  given  to  the  students  during  their 
first  year,  before  the  end  of  which  they  began  the  study 
of  the  first  three  Commandments.  The  second  and  third 
year  courses  alternately  took  up  the  following  subjects: 

(1)  The  fourth,  fifth  and  eighth  Commandments  of  God, 
the  Commandments  of  the  Church,  the  duties  of  the  vari- 
ous states  of  life  and  the  treatise  on  Justice  and  Contracts. 

(2)  The  treatises  on  Penance  and  Marriage,  considered 
from  both  the  dogmatic  and  moral  points  of  view.     Pas- 
toral theology  was  allotted  to  the  three  months  immedi- 
ately preceding  ordination.     It  comprised  the  lectures  on 
the  sixth  and  ninth  Commandments,  cases  of  conscience 
from  the  most  important  parts  of  moral  theology  and  prac- 
tical directions  for  the  ministry. 

Besides  dogma  and  morals,  the  Sulpician  course  of  the- 
ology embraces  the  subject  of  Sacred  Scripture.  From 
the  foundation  of  the  Company  and  in  accordance  with 
the  views  of  M.  Olier,  the  greatest  importance  had  been 
attached  to  thorough  instruction  in  this  subject,  which  is 
one  of  the  sources  not  only  of  Christian  teaching,  but  also 
of  Christian  piety.  In  the  long  years  during  which 
the  young  clerk's  studies  lasted  his  attention  was  directed 
daily  and  almost  hourly  to  the  Sacred  Books.  Every  day 
he  devoted  at  least  half  an  hour  to  the  reading  of  some 
passage  in  the  Bible,  every  day  before  the  midday  meal, 
with  head  uncovered  and  on  his  knees,  he  read  a  chapter 
from  the  Epistles  or  Gospels.  Before  dinner  and  supper 
he  listened  to  the  reading  of  several  verses  of  the  Old 
or  New  Testament.  These  Biblical  exercises  extended 
from  one  end  of  the  young  Levite's  course  to  the  other. 
Moreover,  during  his  philosophical  course,  he  devoted  two 
hours  a  week  to  lectures  on  Biblical  history,  both  of  the 
Old  and  of  the  New  Testament.  These  lectures  presup- 
posed the  time  required  to  prepare  for  them.  While  pur- 


324  THE    SULPICIANS    LN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

suing  these  studies  the  young  cleric  would  become  well 
acquainted  with  the  geography  and  topography  of  the 
Holy  Land,  with  the  customs  and  manners  of  the  Jews, 
and  with  the  state  o¥  Greek  and  Roman  society  in  Our 
Lord's  time.  Add  to  this,  elective  courses  in  Hebrew  and 
Biblical  Greek,  and  the  whole  was  clearly  a  very  substan- 
tial preparation  for  the  young  clerk's  Biblical  work  dur- 
ing his  theological  studies. 

We  shall  now  set  forth  the  Biblical  studies  pursued  dur- 
ing the  three  and  a  quarter  years  of  theology  proper.  In 
1895  one  hour  per  week  was  added  to  the  course  of  Scrip- 
ture, it  having  previously  consisted  of  two  hours  weekly. 
If  it  be  asked  why  this  strengthening  of  the  Scriptural 
course  took  place,  it  is  easy  to  find  the  answer.  On  the 
one  hand,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  much  more  attention 
began  to  be  given  by  scholars  to  Biblical  research,  and  this 
research  was  the  work  of  exploration  no  less  than  of  study. 
Moreover,  the  ingenuity  of  scholars  often  unfriendly  to 
revealed  religion  raised  many  problems  and  controversies, 
some  with  a  view  to  discrediting  the  Sacred  Books,  both 
of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  Naturally  the  young 
theologian  must  be  prepared  to  meet  these  new  problems 
by  a  more  thorough  training,  and  this  was  given  in  the 
additional  hour  a  week  throughout  three  and  a  quar- 
ter years.  The  plan  of  the  new  studies  was  designed 
with  the  utmost  care  and  was  obviously  well  calculated 
to  give  the  young  Biblical  scholar  a  very  substantial  knowl- 
edge of  every  part  of  Biblical  science.  Of  course,  aca- 
demic study  does  not  turn  out  at  once  a  perfect  scholar, 
and  the  gentlemen  of  St.  Sulpice,  who  possessed  in  M.  Le 
Hir  and  others  acknowledged  masters  in  their  craft,  did 
not  deceive  themselves  in  this  particular.  But  it  could 
be  claimed  for  the  course  given  at  St.  Mary's  that  those 
who  carefully  followed  it  and  intended  to  continue  this 
most  interesting  and  important  branch  of  their  training, 


ADMINISTRATION    OP    M.    M.\.,MKX  325 

had  it  in  their  power  to  become  thorough  Biblical  scholars. 

In  its  first  year  the  Biblical  course  gave  to  the  student 
an  introduction  to  Biblical  science.  The  lectures  of  the 
first  term  were  concerned  with  the  canon  of  the  Bible, 
its  original  text,  the  principal  translations  and  the  his- 
tory of  Exegesis,  that  is  to  say,  the  science  of  Biblical 
interpretation.  The  second  term  was  devoted  to  practical 
application  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  first  and 
to  the  somewhat  extended  discussion  of  certain  Biblical 
problems.  Thus  in  the  historical  books  the  history  of  the 
Pentateuch  or  Mosaic  books  was  critically  examined.  In 
the  poetic  books,  the  Book  of  Job ;  in  the  prophetic  books, 
the  Book  of  Daniel;  in  the  didactic  books,  Ecclesiastes, 
were  studied  for  the  problems  of  modern  interest  which 
they  present.  The  New  Testament  led  to  the  discussion 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  of  St.  John's  Gospel  and  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
other  books  may  have  been  substituted  for  those  just  men- 
tioned. 

The  remaining  years,  two  and  a  half,  were  assigned  en- 
tirely to  Exegesis.  Of  course,  the  young  clerics  could  not  in 
little  more  than  two  years,  giving  three  hours  a  week  to  the 
subject,  go  through  the  interpretation  of  all  the  books  of 
Holy  Scripture;  hence  a  number  of  the  more  important 
were  selected  and  made  the  vehicle  of  Scriptural  interpre- 
tation as  laid  down  by  the  Vatican  Council.  The  semina- 
rians were  urged  to  give  additional  time,  if  necessary,  to 
these  important  studies.  To  further  encourage  them,  a  Bib- 
lical circle,  which  lasted  for  a  few  years  only,  was  estab- 
lished in  1894  for  the  most  promising  students.  These 
attended  special  lectures  and  read  dissertations  on  ques- 
tions of  more  than  ordinary  difficulty.  We  must  not  for- 
get to  state  that  every  seminarian  was  required  to  write 
two  papers  yearly  on  Biblical  subjects,  the  first  of  his  own 
selection,  the  second  suggested  by  the  professor.  From 


326  THE    SULPICIAISTS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

1892  special  attention  was  given  to  Scriptural  science 
in  the  annual  and  semi-annual  examinations.  A  course 
of  Canon  Law  extending  over  three  years  and  occupying 
one  hour  a  week,  formed  another  part  of  the  seminary 
course.  Its  divisions  comprehended :  1st.  The  sources  of 
Canon  Law;  2nd.  Ecclesiastical  persons  and  courts;  3rd. 
Canonical  penalties. 

Church  History,  of  which  a  sketch  was  given  during  the 
course  of  philosophy,  was  studied  more  in  detail  during 
the  theological  course.  This  was  done,  not  by  repeating 
the  entire  matter,  but  by  choosing  certain  questions  or 
periods  for  special  treatment.  The  course  lasted  three 
years,  and  was  given  one  hour  a  week  until  1901,  when 
a  second  hour  was  added.  All  the  theologians  of  the  sec- 
ond and  third  years  attended  the  same  lectures. 

To  encourage  the  students  and  to  rouse  a  spirit  of  emu- 
lation, the  faculty  did  not  fail  to  institute  various  debat- 
ing societies,  lecture  courses,  written  exercises,  and  prizes, 
some  of  which  turned  out  to  be  eminently  valuable,  while 
others  gradually  fell  into  disuse. 

We  have  reviewed  the  organization  of  the  curriculum 
of  the  seminary  up  to  the  close  of  Father  Magnien's 
administration  and  placed  before  our  readers  the  final 
result.  We  must  insist,  however,  that  this  result  was 
not  achieved  in  a  day  or  a  year,  and  that  many  of  these 
changes  were  begun  as  early  as  the  days  of  M.  Lhomme 
and  M.  Dubreul.  Much  of  the  reorganization  also  took 
place  in  the  early  days  of  Father  Magnien,  but  it  was  not 
until  1895  that  the  final  development  was  accomplished. 

From  the  studies  of  the  seminary  we  next  proceed  to 
cast  a  glance  at  the  students,  and  here  we  shall  again 
take  the  Jubilee  volume  of  1891  as  our  guide.  In  1879 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  Father  Magnien's  adminis- 
tration, nineteen  seminarians  were  raised  to  the  priest- 
hood, in  1886,  fifty-two,  and  in  1890,  forty-three.  In 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    MAONIEN  327 

spite  of  considerable  fluctuation  these  figures  demonstrate 
a  very  marked  growth,  which  continued  through  the  re- 
mainder of  the  century.    In  fact,  before  1900  the  number 
of  students  had  reached  the  total  of  three  hundred.    These 
came  from  every  part  of  the  United  States,  though,  of 
course,  certain  dioceses  having  seminaries  of  their  own, 
are  not  represented.     The  great  majority  of  the  students' 
are  now  evidently  natives  of  the  United  States,  and  like 
the  seminarians  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
are  principally  Americans   of  Irish   descent.      German- 
Americans,     French-Americans    and     Polish-Americans, 
however,  are  not  wanting,  and  now  and  then  we  meet  with 
a  Spanish  name.    In  fact,  the  various  nationalities  which 
have  contributed  to  the  Catholic  population  of  the  United 
States  during  the  nineteenth  century  are  all  represented. 
Since    Father    Magnien's    administration    approaches 
closer  to  our  own  time,  years  and  experience  have  not 
tested  the  merits  of  the  alumni  to  the  same  extent  as  was 
the  ca,se  heretofore.     Still,  even  the  few  years  that  have 
rolled  by  since  their  entrance  into  the  battlefield  of  life, 
indicate  that  during  its  later  years  St.  Mary's  has  sent 
out  men  equally  as  distinguished  for  scholarship,  zeal, 
vigor  and  practical  wisdom  as  those  that  left  its  halls  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century.    The  second  year  of  Father 
Magnien's  rule  (1879)  sent  forth  to  the  West  a  young 
priest  whose  zeal,  piety,  talents  and  scholarship  warranted 
the  high  hopes  entertained  by  his  professors  in  his  regard. 
His  career  justified  their  expectation,  for  George  T.  Mont- 
gomery rapidly  rose  to  the  coadjutorship  of  the  see  of 
Monterey-Los  Angeles,  and  later  on  to  that  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, everywhere  earning  golden  opinions  by  his  virtue, 
his  wisdom  and  his  zeal.    Unfortunately,  he  was  not  des- 
tined to  fulfil  these  high  promises,  for  in  1907  he  was 
called  to  his  reward.    In  the  year  following  Father  Mont- 
gomery's ordination,  the  present  Bishop  of  Wilmington, 


328  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES 

Right  Reverend  J.  J.  Monaghan,  left  the  halls  of  St. 
Mary's  and  has  since  proved  himself  a  wise,  earnest,  amia- 
ble and  able  administrator.  Seventeen  years  later  Rome 
recognized  his  merits  by  naming  him  third  Bishop  of 
Wilmington,  an  office  which  he  has  adorned  for  well  nigh 
twenty  years.  The  Most  Reverend  J.  B.  Pitaval  joined 
the  alumni  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  in  1881.  Appointed 
auxiliary-bishop  of  Santa  Fe,  with  the  title  of  Bishop 
of  Lora,  twenty-one  years  later,  he  was  promoted  to  be 
archbishop  in  January,  1909.  Bishop  Patrick  J.  Donahue 
was  raised  to  the  see  of  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  nine 
years  after  his  ordination  in  1885.  Peter  James  Muldoon, 
of  the  class  of  1886,  was  named  titular  Bishop  of  Ta- 
massus  in  1901  and  promoted  to  the  see  of  Rockford  in 
1908.  Bishop  Joseph  Patrick  Lynch  of  Dallas,  Texas, 
left  his  Alma  Mater  in  1900  and  was  raised  to  the  epis- 
copal dignity  eleven  years  afterward. 

Of  the  buildings  planned  during  M.  Dubreul's  admin- 
istration only  the  essential  part  had  been  constructed  at 
the  time  of  M.  Magnien's  succession,  but  it  was  soon  evi- 
dent that  these  did  not  fill  the  wants  of  the  institution. 
Accordingly  additions  were  built  at  three  different  times 
(1881,  1891,  and  finally  1894),  until  the  edifice  was  twice 
as  large  as  the  part  built  by  M.  Dubreul.  At  present  St. 
Mary's  Seminary  is  centrally  located  in  the  city  of  Bal- 
timore; the  site  is  triangular  in  form  and  contains  about 
six  acres.  Its  front,  facing  east,  is  on  Paca  Street,  north 
of  Franklin  Street.  The  truncated  north  end  of  this  tri- 
angle, much  the  shortest  side  of  the  whole,  is  on  Druid 
Hill  Avenue.  The  longest  side,  on  the  west,  is  on  St. 
Mary's  Street,  extending  from  Druid  Hill  Avenue  on  the 
north  to  near  Pennsylvania  Avenue  on  the  south.  Except- 
ing that  portion  of  the  seminary  directly  in  front  of  the 
centre  wing  the  grounds  are  enclosed  by  a  high  brick 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    1C.    MAONIKN  320 

wall.    There  are  a  number  of  fine  old  trees  on  the  prem- 
ises. 

The  central  building  sets  back  about  sixty  feet  from 
Paca  Street,  occupying  from  south  to  north  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  lot  on  the  street  line.  On  the  lower  or  south 
end  of  the  lot  stands  the  old  chapel,  begun  in  1806  and 
finished  and  dedicated  on  June  16,  1808.  At  the  extreme 
north,  on  Druid  Hill  Avenue,  a  portion  of  the  lot  is  con- 
secrated as  a  burial  ground,  and  here  repose  the  remaina 
of  the  Sulpician  Fathers,  the  forerunners  of  the  present 
faculty,  each  grave  mound  marked  by  a  simple  cross  of 
cast-iron,  on  a  central  part  of  which  are  inscribed  their 
respective  names  and  dates. 

Near  the  extreme  south  end  of  the  plot  and  facing  west 
is  the  old  chapel,  a  building  of  about  fifty  feet  front  and 
eighty-five  feet  in  depth.  It  was  designed  by  Maximilian 
Godefroy,  an  architect  of  considerable  note  in  his  day, 
but  much  better  versed  in  the  Classic  than  in  the  Gothic 
style.  He  has  here  combined  the  two  styles  and  achieved 
a  not  unpleasing  but  truly  quaint  architectural  design.  It 
is  built  of  brick  with  trimmings  of  Acquia  Creek  sand- 
stone. Fancifully  moulded  bricks  are  used  in  some  of 
the  clustered  columned  shafts  and  in  the  architraves  of  all 
the  outer  door  and  window  openings.  This  is  probably  the 
earliest  instance  of  the  use  in  the  United  States  of  vitri- 
fied clay  for  this  species  of  ornamentation.  A  high  stone 
stoop  leads  up  to  the  vestibule  of  the  chapel.  The  body 
of  the  chapel  is  divided  by  a  row  of  columns  into  a  nave 
and  two  very  narrow  side  aisles.  The  aisles  are  vaulted, 
the  nave  having  a  depressed  barrel  vault,  v/hile  both  vault* 
are  groined  and  ribbed.  The  sanctuary  is  fairly  large 
and  contains  a  fine  white  marble  altar.  The  various  win- 
dows throughout  have  leaded  and  figured  stained  glass 
of  fair  workmanship.  There  is  a  large  sacristy  north  of 
the  sanctuary;  a  similar  sacristy  to  the  south  has  been 


330  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

transformed  into  a  Lourdes  grotto.  Over  the  west  end 
of  the  chapel  and  over  the  vestibule,  there  are  an  organ 
loft  and  gallery.1 

In  the  main  hall  of  the  seminary,  attached  to  the  wall 
behind  the  platform,  is  a  large  crucifix,  with  a  life-sized 
figure  of  Our  Redeemer,  of  surpassing  expression  and 
beauty.  This  crucifix,  which  was  formerly  in  the  chapel 
sanctuary,  is  the  work  of  Capelano,  who  designed  the  more 
than  heroic  figure  that  crowns  the  celebrated  Washington 
Monument  in  Baltimore,  which  was  the  first  statue  erected 
to  the  Father  of  our  country.  The  basement  of  the  church 
was  used  by  Mother  Seton  for  her  school  (1808-09).  The 
house  which  she  then  occupied,  situated  to  the  south  near 
the  seminary  building  on  Paca  Street,  and  the  house 
built  eighteen  or  more  years  ago  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  Sisters  of  Providence  (who  have  charge  of 
the  various  domestic  needs  of  the  seminary)  are  yet  stand- 
ing. The  house  of  the  Sisters  of  Providence  is  a  detached, 
capacious  and  presentable  adjunct  to  the  seminary  build- 
ing. Both  it  and  Mother  Seton's  former  dwelling  lie 
within  the  enclosure,  but  toward  the  southeast  of  the  semi- 
nary grounds.  This  basement  was  also  used  for  many 
years  as  a  place  of  worship  by  the  San  Domingo  refugees 
and  later  by  the  Oblate  Sisters  of  Providence. 

Until  the  new  collegiate  buildings  were  almost  com- 
pleted, the  old  chapel  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  was  always 
open  and  was  much  used  by  the  Catholics  of  Baltimore. 
Adjoining  the  chapel  on  the  east  was  the  home  of  the  Sul- 
pician  Fathers,  and  on  the  west  stood  the  college  buildings 

1  During  the  summer  of  1916  the  chapel  was  completely  refurnished 
and  redecorated.  The  scheme  of  decoration  follows  that  commonly  found 
In  the  fifteenth  century  in  France,  Germany  and  England.  As  the  chapel 
is  dedicated  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  blue  is  extensively  used.  The 
altar  was  remodelled  and  set  back  into  the  apse.  A  tester  (the  Gothic 
development  of  the  baldacchino).  said  to  be  the  first  of  its  kind  in  Amer- 
ica, is  suspended  from  the  vault.  The  floor  of  the  choir  and  sanctuary 
has  been  laid  with  tile,  the  capacity  of  the  former  is  greatly  increased 
and  much  added  space  is  gained  for  the  latter  also.  The  whole  choir 
is  enclosed  in  screens  of  oak.  according  to  the  ancient  custom.  The  work 
was  designed  by  and  carried  out  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Wilfrid 
Edwards  Anthony  of  New  York.  A.  B. 


ADMINISTRATION    OP    M.    MAONIEN  331 

which  have  since  been  demolished.  The  Sulpician  ceme- 
tery was  at  that  time  directly  in  the  rear  of  the  chapel  and 
was  removed  to  its  present  location  to  make  room  for  the 
new  seminary.  The  old  chapel  long  since  proved  too  small 
for  so  large  an  institution  and  was  therefore  supplemented 
by  a  new  one  for  the  use  of  the  philosophers  in  the  wing 
running  north.  The  fundamental  outline  of  the  new 
seminary  is  like  two  Roman  E's  placed  back  to  back,  the 
outer  having  less  depth  than  the  inner  one.  The  north 
arm  of  the  wing  running  westward  turns  northward  at  its 
end,  thus  forming  an  additional  wing  running  north. 
Both  ends  of  the  main  body  project  slightly  beyond  the 
wings.  The  entire  college  has  an  area  of  fully  20,000 
square  feet ;  its  extreme  length  from  south  to  north  is  about 
350  feet,  with  an  extreme  depth  from  east  to  west  of  about 
130  feet.  The  centre  and  south  wings  were  built  in  1876, 
the  north  wings  in  1881,  1891  and  1894.  The  entire  build- 
ing is  of  uniform  material  and  finish  and  presents  a  pleas- 
ing appearance,  due  to  its  regularity  in  size  and  proportions 
rather  than  to  its  decorative  features.  It  is  not  built  after 
any  recognized  style.  The  centre  building  is  five  stories 
in  height  and  the  wings  are  four,  the  structure  being 
crowned  by  a  mansard  roof,  with  the  centre  predominating 
because  of  its  additional  story. 

The  main  entrance  is  reached  by  a  fine  flight  of  granite 
steps,  which  forms  a  decorative  feature  in  smoothly 
dressed  stone.  The  principal  part  of  the  basement  story 
is  devoted  to  refectories,  a  kitchen  and  their  accessories. 
The  first  story,  with  its  spacious  entrance  hall,  is  occupied 
by  parlors,  reception  rooms,  prayer  halls  and  class  rooms. 
The  centre  of  the  second  story  contains  the  suite  of  the 
president  of  the  seminary,  also  several  rooms  set  apart 
for  the  use  of  the  archbishop  of  the  diocese.  The  stu- 
dents' rooms  occupy  the  remainder.  The  professors  and 
students  are  also  lodged  in  the  third  and  fourth  stories. 


332  THE    StTLPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

A  library  containing  50,000  well  selected  volumes  ia 
housed  in  the  centre  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  or  mansard 
story. 

We  must  not  forget  briefly  to  draw  attention  to  a  few 
of  the  noteworthy  paintings  scattered  throughout  the 
building.  Four  of  these  were  the  donation  of  the  Hon- 
orable Severn  Teakle  Wallis,  one  of  the  graduates  of  the 
college,  whose  generosity  we  have  had  occasion  to  mention 
before.  The  first  hangs  in  the  dining  room  situated  next 
to  the  main  dining  hall  in  the  basement.  Its  subject  is 
Christ  at  table  with  disciples  at  Emmaus,  the  repre- 
sentation being  worthy  of  its  subject.  On  each  side 
of  the  great  crucifix  mentioned  above  are  hung  more  than 
life-size  pictures  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  ascribed  to 
the  great  master,  Peter  Paul  Rubens.  In  the  principal 
apartment  assigned  to  the  cardinal  there  is  a  beautiful 
and  impressive  representation  of  St.  Catherine  of  Alex- 
andria, which  by  its  coloring  and  drawing  has  charmed 
several  generations  of  visitors.1 

To  return  to  Father  Magnien,  it  will  be  remembered 
that  in  1886  he  discontinued  his  work  as  a  teacher.  This 
was  due  in  great  part  to  the  fact  that  during  the  latter 
part  of  his  administration  his  time  was  largely  taken  up 
by  the  duties  of  hospitality  forced  upon  him  by  a  series 
of  anniversaries  and  other  festivities.  As  early  as  1880, 
the  seminary  was  invited  by  the  civic  authorities  of  Bal- 
timore to  take  part  in  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the  city. 
The  archbishop  and  the  seminary  authorities  decided  to 
accept  the  invitation  as  an  evidence  of  the  solidarity  of 
its  Catholic  institutions  and  people  with  the  city  of  the 
Calverts  and  the  land  of  Mary;  hence,  together  with  the 
rest  of  the  Catholic  clergy  of  Baltimore,  they  took  part  in 

1 1  am  indebted  for  the  above  description  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  to 
my  friend,  Mr.  George  Frederick,  the  eminent  architect  of  the  Baltimore 
City  Hall. 


I  ^-" 


\Yry  Hcv.  A.  L.  Magnien 
Sixth  Superior  of  Si.  Mary's  Seminary 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    MAONIElf  333 

the  procession  held  to  celebrate  the  anniversary.  The 
dignitaries  of  the  Church  were  the  more  ready  to  take 
part  in  these  festivities,  owing  to  the  fact  that  a  day  had 
been  especially  set  apart  for  commemorating  the  Catholic 
glories  of  the  city  where  the  first  Catholic  see  had  been 
established.  In  the  following  year  occurred  the  centenary 
of  the  victory  of  Yorktown  (1781).  The  entire  Union 
joined  in  commemorating  this  glorious  occasion  and  many 
of  the  descendants  of  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau  came  to 
add  dignity  to  the  celebration.  The  representative*  of 
the  French  nation  called  at  the  seminary,  where  they  re- 
ceived a  warm  welcome  from  Father  Magnien  and  the 
professors. 

When,  in  1884,  the  third  national  Council  of  Baltimore 
was  summoned  and  assembled,  it  was  in  the  hall  of  the 
seminary  itself  that  it  held  its  sessions.  Of  the  seventy- 
five  prelates  who  met  on  this  occasion,  many  were  in- 
vited to  take  up  their  abode  in  the  seminary  while  the 
Council  was  in  session,  and  the  seminary  became  the  focus 
of  its  activities.  In  this  Father  Magnien  followed  tradi- 
tion, for  from  the  beginning  the  councils,  provincial  and 
national,  had  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  St  Mary's.  Fa- 
ther Magnien  was  himself  a  member  of  the  council,  be- 
ing the  theologian  of  the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore.  His 
charming  qualities  as  host  were  thoroughly  appreciated,  as 
were  also  his  learning  and  wisdom.  His  voice  was  there- 
fore potent  in  the  decrees  of  the  Council,  especially  in 
the  committee  on  clerical  education,  and  he  had  no  little 
share  in  planning  and  promoting  the  foundation  of  the 
Catholic  University  at  Washington. 

Baltimore  was  again  the  scene  of  great  festivities  when, 
in  1889,  it  celebrated  the  centenary  of  the  creation  of 
its  episcopal  see.  Every  state  and  diocese  contributed 
to  make  this  solemnity  memorable.  Delegates  from  every 
state  of  the  Union  met  and  organized  the  first  American 


334  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

Catholic  Congress,  and  to  add  further  significance  to  the 
occasion,  the  new  Catholic  University  was  at  the  same  time 
inaugurated  in  Washington.  St.  Sulpice  had  a  special 
reason  for  joining  in  the  inauguration  of  the  Washington 
University,  because  to  its  members  had  been  confided  the 
disciplinary  management  and  spiritual  direction  of  the 
seminary  of  the  institution.  Moreover,  the  American 
Sulpicians  were. hoping  to  establish  at  Washington,  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  University,  a  scholasticate 
of  the  Company,  a  hope  which  was  fulfilled  in  1901. 
We  see,  therefore,  that  on  this  occasion  also  St.  Sulpice, 
by  its  history  and  its  aspiration,  was  called  upon  to  have 
a  more  than  ordinary  share  in  the  celebration.  As  usual, 
the  president  showed,  by  his  generous  hospitality,  how 
deeply  interested  he  was  in  all  that  concerned  the  Church 
and  the  nation,  a  circumstance  which  undoubtedly  in- 
creased the  popularity  and  influence  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  of 
its  superior  as  well.  M.  Magnien's  attractive  qualities 
were  always  appreciated,  but  never  more  than  on  the 
occasion  of  such  festivities. 

The  last  anniversary,  and  that  in  which  St.  Mary's  was 
in  a  peculiar  manner  interested,  was  its  own  centenary. 
On  that  occasion  were  gathered  in  its  halls,  and  in  the 
cathedral,  which  was  so  intimately  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  seminary  and  the  Company  of  St.  Sulpice, 
a  vast  number  of  its  living  alumni,  while  the  glories  and 
the  achievements  of  its  departed  sons  were  written  all 
about  them  in  letters  of  gold.  Scores  of  prelates  were 
there  and  hundreds  of  learned  and  zealous  priests,  every 
one  of  them  an  honor  to  his  Alma  Mater.  All  were  proud 
of  this  intellectual  home ;  all  felt  the  charm  of  again  rest- 
ing on  the  bosom  of  their  spiritual  mother.  Father  Mag- 
nien  was  as  liberal  as  his  own  and  his  confreres'  reputa- 
tion for  kindness  and  generosity  led  their  former  scholars 
to  expect.  All  the  guests,  from  the  cardinal  down  to  the 


ADMINISTRATION    OP    M.    M  AON  I  EX  335 

youngest  alumnus,  felt  themselves  surrounded  by  the  love 
of  a  true  mother,  and  their  hearts  were  stirred  to  recipro- 
cal affection.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  the  guests  re- 
solved in  filial  thankfulness  to  build  another  and  more 
beautiful  chapel  for  their  Alma  Mater.  They  utilized 
this  opportunity  to  associate  together  all  the  alumni  of 
the  seminary  into  a  union  which  aimed  to  make  lasting 
the  friendly  ties  of  their  early  manhood,  the  members 
pledging  themselves  to  further  the  fame  and  the  interests 
of  the  institution. 

The  hundredth  anniversary  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary  was 
followed  by  a  movement  to  extend  the  activity  of  the  So- 
ciety of  St.  Sulpice  in  America,  doubtless  partly  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  centenary  celebrations.  As  early  as  1848,  Arch- 
bishop Hughes  had  expressed  his  desire  that  the  Sul- 
picians  should  take  charge  of  his  seminary,  but  the  Com- 
pany was  at  the  time  in  no  way  prepared  to  accept  this 
proposal.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  century  quite  a  num- 
ber of  applications  were  made  to  the  superiors  of  Bal- 
timore and  Paris  to  take  the  direction  of  some  American 
seminaries.  Notwithstanding  the  growth  of  the  Com- 
pany both  in  France  and  America,  common  prudence  for- 
bade the  Sulpician  Superiors  to  entertain  all  the  applica- 
tions made  to  them.  However,  Father  Magnien  was  too 
energetic,  too  zealous  and  too  enthusiastic  a  man  not  to  be 
greatly  interested  in  the  new  work  which  the  Company 
and  its  Superiors  took  upon  themselves  just  about  this 
time.  The  Sulpicians  took  in  hand  almost  simultaneously 
the  disciplinary  management  of  the  Catholic  University, 
the  erection  of  St.  Augustine's  scholasticate  at  Washing 
ton  and  the  direction  of  the  seminaries  of  the  three  great 
archdioceses  of  Boston,  New  York  and  San  Francisco.  ^ 

Of  course  the  planning  and  the  work  connected  with 
these  projects,  the  control  of  which  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Paris  Superiors,  must  have  made  great  demands  on 


336  THE    SULPICIANS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 

the  physical  and  mental  powers  of  the  Baltimore  superior. 
At  first,  his  vigorous  constitution  hardly  felt  the  strain. 
Indeed,  not  satisfied  with  the  exertions  imposed  upon  him 
by  his  office,  he  seems  to  have  sought  further  work.  He 
had  become,  in  the  course  of  time,  an  eloquent  and  sym- 
pathetic English  orator,  while  his  broad  views  and  vast 
experience  suggested  him  as  a  most  wise  counsellor.  He 
was  soon  occupied,  not  only  during  the  ten  months 
of  the  scholastic  year,  but  also  during  the  summer  vaca- 
tion, when  he  was  asked  by  bishops  and  priests  to  give 
them  some  of  the  advantages  of  his  learning  and  experi- 
ence on  occasion  of  the  clerical  retreats.  Father  Magnien's 
temperament  did  not  allow  him  to  refuse,  and  in 
the  vacation  season  his  wise,  prudent  and  zealous  voice 
was  heard  in  many  parts  of  the  American  republic. 
Wherever  he  spoke  his  earnestness,  wisdom  and  personal 
magnetism  produced  twenty-fold  fruit  and  increased  the 
confidence  of  the  clergy  in  the  Sulpician  superior  and  his 
brethren.  But  he  was  burning  the  candle  at  both  ends, 
denying  necessary  rest  to  a  body  strained  to  the  utmost 
by  the  year's  work.  At  last  in  1897,  while  giving  a  retreat 
to  the  clergy  of  St.  Louis,  he  was  stricken  by  a  severe  dis- 
ease. The  most  eminent  medical  authority  pronounced 
that,  without  a  severe  operation,  Father  Magnien's  life 
was  doomed.  He  went  to  Paris  to  consult  the  most  trusted 
French  physicians,  who,  after  careful  consultation,  de- 
clared that  a  surgical  operation  was  indispensable,  andr 
without  hesitation,  Father  Magnien  submitted  to  it.  The 
operation  was  successful  and  he  returned  to  his  beloved 
seminary,  but  after  three  years  it  was  evident  that  the  cure 
was  but  a  reprieve.  Heart  disease  set  in  and  during  the 
vacation  of  1902  the  necessity  of  appointing  his  successor 
became  evident  to  every  one,  even  to  himself.  During 
the  fall  his  strength  gradually  waned,  and  on  December 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    M.    MAONIEX  337 

21,  1902,  he  was  called  to  meet  his  Saviour  in  another 
•world. 

His  funeral  was  worthy  of  the  man.  The  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  a  number  of  bishops  and  several  hundred 
priests  hastened  to  pay  him  the  last  honors.  Every  tongue 
spoke  of  his  merits.  Above  all,  Cardinal  Gibbons  was 
unstinted  in  his  praise  when  expressing  his  appreciation 
of  the  man  who  had  for  twenty-five  years  been  his  .co- 
laborer  and  his  loyal  friend. 


APPENDIX 

The  most  illustrious  alumnus  of  St.  Charles'  College, 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  has  many  times  in  his  life  spoken  in 
the  highest  terms  of  praise  regarding  the  character  of  its 
training.  His  discourse  at  the  commencement  exercises 
of  the  college,  shortly  after  the  destruction  of  the  old 
building,  is  well  worthy  of  being  preserved,  not  only  as 
the  record  of  the  Cardinal's  feelings  towards  St.  Charles', 
but  also  as  an  historical  document  witnessing  to  the  real 
character  and  effects  of  the  St.  Charles'  training.  We 
therefore  reproduce  in  full  the  discourse  or,  rather,  in- 
formal talk  to  the  graduating  class  of  1912,  which  was 
given  in  the  Maryland  Theatre,  June  13th. 

"I  hail  this  opportunity  with  delight,  and  I  regard  it  as 
a  sacred  duty  of  religion  and  gratitude  to  pay  a  tribute 
of  an  overflowing  heart  to  my  venerated  teachers,  the 
Fathers  of  St.  Sulpice.  I  shall  always  hold  in  grateful 
remembrance  the  Fathers  of  St.  Sulpice  for  having  trained 
my  heart  to  virtue  and  religion  and  for  having  prepared 
me  for  the  ecclesiastical  state.  I  shall  forever  bless  the 
memory  of  the  Kedemptorist  Father  who  advised  me  to 
select  St.  Charles'  College  for  the  pursuit  of  my  studies, 
and  I  thank  an  over-ruling  Providence  for  having  guided 
my  steps  to  that  institution. 

"It  is  now  nearly  fifty-seven  years  since  I  started  from 
New  Orleans  to  Baltimore  to  take  up  my  ecclesiastical 
studies,  and  I  can  assure  you,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  for 
I  know  it  from  experience,  that  travelling  in  those  days 
was  not  quite  so  pleasant  as  it  is  today.  There  were  no 
palace  cars,— no  eating  cars,— no  sleeping  cars,— and  we 
had  to  sit  on  the  benches  of  a  day  coach  for  several  days. 

339 


340  APPENDIX 

There  was  no  railroad  connection  then  between  the  Cres- 
cent City  and  the  Monumental  City,  and  I  had  to  ascend 
the  Mississippi  River  to  Cairo;  and  I  continued  my  jour- 
ney on  the  Ohio  River  to  Cincinnati  and  there  took  a 
train  for  Baltimore  over  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail- 
road, which  was  then  young  in  its  advancement  towards 
modern  facilities  of  travel.  The  road  was  not  yet  com- 
plete and  when  we  reached  the  Allegheny  Mountains  we 
were  obliged  to  cross  a  portion  of  them  by  stage,  and  I 
reached  the  end  of  my  journey  after  a  travel  of  sixteen 
days.  It  now  occupies  about  twice  that  number  of  hours 
to  get  to  the  same  place. 

"The  image  of  each  of  the  Fathers  who  had  charge  of 
the  Seminary  and  the  College  in  those  days  is  indelibly 
imprinted  on  my  mind.  Father  Lhomme,  Doctor  Dubreul2 
Father  Elder,  Mr.  Randanne,  Mr.  Menu,  Mr.  Blanc,  Mr. 
Jenkins,  Mr.  Griffin. — I  remember  them  all  very  well.  I 
have  been  acquainted  for  half  a  century  with  many  clergy- 
men of  exceptional  virtue  in  both  the  diocesan  and  re- 
ligious branches  of  the  hierarchy,  and  I  can  truly  say  that 
I  never  met  any  priests  that  surpassed  the  Sulpician 
Fathers  in  rectitude  of  life,  in  singleness  of  purpose  and 
in  devotion  to  duty. 

"The  arrival  of  the  Sulpician  Fathers  in  this  country 
was  coeval  with  the  establishment  of  the  American  hier- 
archy. They  were  invited  by  Bishop  Carroll  about  the 
time,  I  believe,  of  his  consecration.  What  Bishop  Carroll 
has  been  to  the  hierarchy  of  the  United  States,  the  Sul- 
pician Fathers  have  been  to  the  clergy.  He  has  been  the 
model  of  the  American  episcopate,  they  have  been  the 
models  of  the  clergy.  They  have  been  with  us  now  for 
nearly  a  century  and  a  quarter,  and  during  all  that  time 
they  have  upheld  the  honor  and  the  dignity  of  the  priest- 
hood. ~No  stain  has  ever  sullied  their  bright  escutcheon. 
^o  breath  of  calumny  has  ever  dimmed  the  mirror  of  their 


APPENDIX  341 

fair  name.  I  have  met  and  known  Sulpicians  of  various 
kinds,  characters  and  temperaments.  Like  other  men  they 
are  different  from  one  another.  I  have  known  Sulpicians 
of  a  sanguine  temperament  and  Sulpicians  of  a  phlegmatic 
temperament,  Sulpicians  who  were  tall  and  some  who 
were  small.  But  I  have  never  in  the  whole  course  of 
my  life  met  a  Sulpician  who  was  not  worthy  of  his  high 
calling. 

"About  six  years  ago,  I  think  in  1906,  Pius  X  issued  a 
letter  of  instruction  regarding  the  rule  and  discipline 
which  should  govern  ecclesiastical  colleges.  I  am  glad  to 
be  able  to  say  that  long  before  that  decree  was  issued,  its 
spirit  and  its  regulations  were  strictly  observed  at  St. 
Charles'  College.  Indeed,  they  have  always  been  observed 
in  institutions  under  Sulpician  control.  The  founder  of 
St  Sulpice,  Father  Olier,  inspired  by  the  Council  of 
Trent  and  the  example  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  taught 
his  followers  the  beet  means  to  take  for  the  formation  of 
true  priests.  And  they  are  the  same  means  which  are  fol- 
lowed in  all  good  seminaries,  for  they  embody  the  wisdom 
and  spirit  of  the  Church  which  our  Holy  Father  recently 
reaffirmed.  And  it  must  be  a  source  of  gratification  to 
you,  young  gentlemen,  that  in  observing  the  rules  of  your 
college,  you  are  guided  by  the  wise  counsels  not  only  of 
your  professors,  but  also  of  the  Holy  Father  himself,  and 
what  is  more,  you  are  obeying  Christ  Himself  who  is  the 
God  of  peace  and  order. 

"When  I  came  to  St  Charles'  I  knew  very  little  about 
discipline,  and  I  shall  never  cease  to  be  grateful  for  the 
training  given  there  by  the  Fathers.  They  taught  us  to 
love  God.  They  taught  us  by  word  and  example  to  prac- 
tise genuine  charity  and  politeness  towards  one  another. 
They  allowed  us  liberty  without  license,  granting  every 
freedom  commensurate  with  good  order,  and  they  gave  us 
the  example  of  how  to  rule  without  tyranny.  They  held 


342  APPENDIX 

over  us  the  aegis  of  their  moral  protection  without  inter- 
fering with  the  God-given  rights  of  conscience.  They 
shared  in  our  pastimes  and  amusements,  and  their  greatest 
delight  was  to  contribute  to  our  happiness  and  contentment 
of  mind.  They  sought  every  means  to  cure  us  of  that 
sickness  which  is  terrible  to  young  students, — nostalgia  or 
homesickness. — It  was  a  kindly  but  strong  discipline 
which  developed  the  moral  qualities  of  those  who  were 
called  to  the  priesthood  and  eliminated  those  who  were 
unfit;  and  I  trust  for  the  good  of  the  American  clergy 
that  the  character  of  the  moral  training  given  at  St. 
Charles'  will  remain  always  the  same.  What  we  desire 
above  all  are  priests  who  are  upright  and  manly  and  put 
holiness  of  life  in  the  first  place.  As  to  the  intellectual 
training  of  the  college,  the  St.  Charles'  boys  everywhere 
prove  its  excellence  by  the  high  standing  they  take  in  any 
Seminary  which  they  enter."  Turning  to  the  graduates 
who  were  seated  on  the  stage,  the  Cardinal  continued : 

"Plato,  the  greatest  philosopher  of  ancient  Greece,  was 
accustomed  to  thank  God  for  two  blessings  that  he  en- 
joyed: first,  that  he  was  born  and  educated  in  a  country 
so  advanced  in  civilization  as  Greece,  and,  secondly,  that 
he  had  Socrates  for  his  teacher.  You  have,  my  young 
friends,  still  more  reason  to  be  grateful  to  Providence, 
that  your  lives  have  been  cast  in  pleasant  places,  that 
you  have  been  reared  in  a  country  where  you  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  that  you  have 
for  your  teachers  the  disciples  and  followers  of  Christ 
who  is  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God,  whose 
knowledge  excels  that  of  Socrates  as  much  as  the  noon- 
day sun  excels  the  light  of  the  flickering  taper. 

"It  is  the  part  of  a  noble  and  ingenuous  soul  to  be  grate- 
ful to  his  instructors.  For  no  compensation  is  adequate 
to  repay  those  who  formed  the  mind  to  knowledge  and 
virtue.  Alexander  the  Great,  the  most  illustrious  of  an- 


APPENDIX  343 

cient  generals,  had  for  his  preceptor,  Aristotle,  one  of  the 
greatest  philosophers.  In  the  midst  of  his  campaigns  he 
never  forgot  his  duty  to  his  teacher.  He  used  to  say  that 
his  love  for  Aristotle  was  equal  to  his  affection  for  his 
father,  Philip,  'for,'  he  said,  'I  have  received  life  through 
the  one,  the  other  has  taught  me  how  to  live  well.'  After 
his  conquests  in  Persia  he  presented  his  teacher  with  a 
sum  of  money  equal  to  about  a  million  dollars  in  our 
currency. 

"I  am  sure  your  teachers  will  not  expect  so  munificent 
a  remuneration  at  your  hands.  But  you  can  hestow  on 
them  what  they  value  more  than  gold  or  silver,  that  is 
the  golden  coin  of  grateful  hearts.  They  will  have  their 
earthly  reward  when  they  know  you  are  carrying  out,  first 
in  the  seminary  and  later  in  the  priesthood,  the  lessons 
taught  you  at  St.  Charles'.  Let  no  graduate  of  St.  Charles' 
be  like  a  barren  tree.  Strike  deep  root,  grow,  spread  out 
your  branches  and  bring  forth  good  fruit  in  abundance," 


INDEX 


Abell,    Rev.    Mr.,    and    Bishop 

Flaget,  151 
Amat,  bishop  of  Monterey,  and 

Deluol,  213 
Andersonville,      prisoners,      and 

Verot,  289 

Andr6,  Sulpician,  318 
Andreis,  de,  Lazarist,  174 
Anduze,  M.,  and  Dubourg,   177, 

178 

Annapolis  school,  99 
Antonelli,  Cardinal,  and  Bishop 

Carroll,  1,  17 
Aquaroni,  Lazarist,  174 
Arundell,  Lord,  and  Bishop  Car- 
roll, 17 
Ayme",  M.,  at  St.  Mary's  College, 

105 
Ayrinhac,  H.,  Sulpician,  320 

Babad,  Sulpician,  44;  and  ne- 
groes, 234;  at  8t  Mary's  Col- 
lege, 71,  105,  107;  and  Mother 
Seton,  221 

Bacon,  bishop  of  Portland,  207 

Badin,  Stephen,  and  Bardstown 
diocese,  147;  missionary  jour- 
neys, 149;  repartee,  69;  at  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  40,  41,  68 

Balais,  Marie  Frances,  Oblate 
Sister,  234 

Baltimore,  anniversary  celebra- 
tion, 150th,  332,  333;  cathe- 
dral, consecration  of,  186; 
colored  population,  63;  coun- 
cils of,  Eccleston,  280;  council 
(1829),  90;  council  (1831), 


Tessier,  90;  council  (1884), 
and  St.  Mary's  seminary,  33, 
333;  Knownothings,  294,  896; 
Marechal's  episcopate,  180; 
182-187;  refugees,  We»t  In- 
dian, 231;  St.  Mary's  college, 
71;  St.  Mary's  seminary,  16, 
18,  24;  see  erected,  3;  see, 
centenary  of  creation,  333, 
334;  Sulpicians,  22,  39;  and 
Tessier,  86,  87 

Barbarin,  Sulpician,   300 

Bardstown,  and  Chabrat,  285; 
David,  164,  165;  Flaget,  147; 
see  erected,  144;  seminary, 
148,  149,  162;  statistics,  160 

Barret,  Sulpician,  at  St  Mary's 
seminary,  40,  41 

Bayley,  Dr.  Richard,  216 

Beauvais,  diocesan  seminary,  27 

Bechet,  Sulpician,  9 

Benech,  Sulpician,  313 

Bertrand,  general,  at  St  Mary 's 
seminary,  205 

,  M.,  ordination,  174n 

Blrulle,  Cardinal  de,  and  clerical 
training,  27 

Bieil,  Sulpician,  317,  318,  319 

Bishops,  and  seminary  direction, 
32 

Blanc,  archbishop  of  New  Or- 
leans, and  Deluol,  213;  and 
Sisters  of  Providence,  235 

Boarman,  Charles,  at  8U  Mary  '• 
college,  119 

Boegue,  Marie  Rosinc,  Oblate 
Sister,  234 


345 


346 


INDEX 


Bogan,  Bernard  M.,  264 

Bohemia  Manor,  mission,  63,  77 

Bonaparte,  Jerome  Napoleon,  at 
St.  Mary's  college,  118 

Boston,  Fen  wick's  episcopate, 
73;  German  Catholic  church, 
first,  73 

Bourdoise,  Adrien,  seminary  di- 
rection, 27 

Bowie,  Oden,  at  St.  Mary's  col- 
lege, 243 

Boyer,  Arsenius,  Sulpician,  318 

Breslau,  seminary,  26 

Bretonvilliers,  de,  Sulpician,  and 
Emery,  9;  and  Olier,  35;  and 
Sulpician  rule,  35 

Brocard,  Jesuit,  Baltimore  foun- 
dation, 295 

Brooke,  Ignatius,  priest,  71 

Brownson,  Sarah,  Gallitzin'a  bi- 
ography, 70 

Brute",  Simon  Gabriel,  bishop  of 
Vincennes,  267-276;  death, 
276;  Flaget,  267,  268;  learn- 
ing, 268,  269;  library,  268; 
and  Mount  St.  Mary's,  133; 
Providence,  Sisters  of,  235;  at 
St.  Mary's  college,  114,  115; 
at  St.  Mary's  seminary,  268; 
and  Mother  Seton,  226 

Burke,  T.  M.  A.,  bishop  of  Al- 
bany, 261,  263,  308 

Butler,  Mary  Anne,  Sister  of 
Charity,  222 

Byrne,  William,  82;  at  St. 
Mary's  college,  156 

Cahokia,   mission,   167 
Caldwell,  Edward,  at  St.  Mary's 

seminary,  19 
Calvert  Hall,   278,  279 
Canada,    Sulpicians    in,    4,    32, 

37 

Carbry,  Dominican,  182 
Oarrell,    George    A.,    bishop    of 


Covington,  83;  and  St.  Mary's, 
135 

Caniere,  Sulpician,  62;  visita- 
tion, 89,  115,  194;  and  Whit- 
field,  194 

Carroll,  Charles,  of  Carrollton, 
death,  201n;  and  Dubois,  188; 
and  Maryland  University,  100; 
and  St.  John's  college,  103; 
and  Sulpicians,  199-201,  201n 

,  John,  archbishop  of  Bal- 
timore, and  academy,  Sulpi- 
cian, 44,  47;  and  Lord  Arun- 
dell,  17;  and  Charity,  Sisters 
of,  224;  consecration,  16;  and 
Dubourg,  44,  113;  and  Du- 
gnam,  4,  15 ;  and  Emery,  8,  14, 
17,  48,  49,  50;  and  Flaget, 
144-145,  147;  and  Gallitzin, 
41,  69;  and  Gamier,  60;  and 
Georgetown,  3,  17;  and  Louisi- 
ana, 172;  and  Nagot,  17,  54, 
57;  and  St.  John's  college, 
103;  and  St.  Mary's  college, 
96,  97;  seminary  projects,  3, 
15,  23;  and  Mother  Seton,  219, 
220;  and  Sulpicians,  17,  20, 
22,  23,  40,  42;  and  Tessier, 
76,  87 

,   Nicholas,   and  St.   John's 

college,  103 

Cass,  Governor,  and  Flaget,  155 

"  Catholepistemiad, "  168 

"Catholic  Advocate,"  81,  207, 
208 

"Catholic  Mirror,"  208 

Catholic  Tract  Society,  207,  279 

Catholic  University,  projected, 
209;  and  Sulpiciana,  333,  334, 
335 

Caton,  Edward,  at  St.  Charles' 
college,  248,  250,  260 

,  Miss.    See  Mactavish,  Mrs. 

Catonsville,  St.  Charles'  college, 
264 


INDEX 


347 


Chabrat,  Guy  Ignatius,  coadju- 
tor of  Bardstown,  285-287 
Chanche,  John,  Mary,  bishop  of 
Natchez,  282-285;  and  Carroll 
of  Carrollton,  201n;  and  Char- 
ity, Sisters  of,  229;  at  St. 
Mary's  college,  195,  238,  282, 
283 

Chapelle,  Placide  Louis,  arch- 
bishop, 308 ;  doctorate,  309 ;  at 
St.  Charles'  college,  261 

Charbonnel,  bishop,  and  Dcluol, 
204 

Charity,  Daughters  of,  of  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul,  and  Km- 
mitsburg  Sisters,  229;  and 
Seton  Sisters,  223,  224 

Charity,  Sisters  of,  and  Brut*, 
269;  constitutions,  225;  and 
Deluol,  198,  209 ;  division,  227, 
228;  and  Dubois,  127;  in 
Florida,  288,  289;  incorpora- 
tion, 226;  and  Lazarista,  229; 
in  Natchez,  283,  284;  in  New 
York,  191;  and  orphanages, 
228;  and  poor  schools,  224; 
rule,  224;  and  Sulpicians,  211, 
215,  227,  228,  229,  230;  and 
Vincentian  Sisters,  229 

Charles  Borromeo,  Saint,  semi- 
nary, 25 

Charlestown,  Mass.,  anti-Catholic 
riot,  73;  ecclesiastical  disturb- 
ances, 182;  Fenwick,  73 

Chartres,  diocesan  seminary,  27 

Chatard,  Mrs.,  and  Sisters  of 
Providence,  234,  235 

Chateaubriand,    and    Sulpicians, 

21 

Chestertown,  Md.,  college,  99 
Cheverus,     bishop     of     Boston, 
184;     and    Mrs.    Seton,    219, 
220 

Chevign6,  de,  at  St  Mary's  col- 
lege, 105n,  106,  110 


Chicoisnean,  at  St.  Mary's  semi- 
nary, 41 
Chigi,   cardinal,   and  Sulpieiana, 

35 
Chitehakos,    Indian    chief,    274, 

874m. 

Christian  Brothers,  in  Baltimore, 
278;  in  Florida,  289 

Ciquard,  Sulpician,  and  Emery, 
7;  at  8t  Mary's  seminary, 
41 

Civil  War,  and  8t  Charles'  col- 
lege, 257 

Clarke,  Father,  8.  J.,  Baltimore 
foundation,  296 

,  George  Rogers,  and  Flaget, 

155 

Clay,  Henry,  and  Dr.  Pise,  82 

Cloriviere,  J.  P.,  and  Visitation 
Order,  82 

Glossy,  Susan,  Sister  of  Charity, 
222 

Colleges,  American,  commence- 
ment exercises,  109 

Collegium  Germanicum,  Borne,  29 

Concanen,  Luke,  bishop  of  New 
York,  184 

Concordat,  French,  and  Snlpi- 
cians,  46 

Congress,  U.  8.,  Richard's  dele- 
gation to,  169 

Connolly,  John,  bishop  of  New 
York,  184 

,  John  B.,  248 

Conway,  Bertrand  L.,  Paulist, 
264 

Conwell,  Henry,  bishop  of  Phila- 
delphia, 184 

Cooley,  Judge,  and  Richard,  170 

Cooper,  Samuel,  222,  222n,  223, 
226;  and  Mount  8t  Mary's, 
133;  at  8t  Mary's  seminary, 
80 

Corrigan,  archbishop,  and  Mount 
8t  Mary's,  134 


348 


INDEX 


Coskery,  Henry,  vicar-general  of 

Baltimore,  209,  306 
Courson,  de,  Sulpician,  210,  211 
Crenier,  Sulpician,  and  Emery,  9 
Cubi   y   Soler,    Mariano,   at   St. 

Mary's  college,   116 
Cuddy,  Michael,  priest,  71 

Damphoux,  Sulpician,  83;  doctor- 
ate, 88;  at  St.  Mary's  college, 
114,  115,  116,  195,  237 

Danels,  Simon  Bolivar  Daniel, 
243 

Dausch,  Michael,  at  St.  Charles' 
college,  248 

Dauversiere,  de  la,  and  Olier, 
37 

David,  John  Baptist,  coadjutor 
of  Bardstown,  161-166;  and 
Carroll  of  Carrollton,  199;  and 
Charity,  Sisters  of,  223;  co- 
adjutorship,  164;  and  Emery, 
8;  episcopal  nominations,  162; 
and  Flaget,  145,  161,  166;  mis- 
sionary labors,  42,  161;  and 
Nazareth,  Sisters  of,  156,  163; 
at  St.  Mary's  seminary,  41,  74, 
77;  seminary,  149;  writings, 
165 

Delavau,  Sulpician,   8,  19 

Deluol,  Louis  Regis,  biographical 
details,  197;  Charity,  Sisters 
of,  209,  227,  228,  230;  death, 
214;  doctorate,  88;  and  Du- 
bois,  204;  France,  recall  to, 
292;  friendships,  204,  205,  213, 
214;  influence,  252;  and  Ken- 
rick,  204;  Purcell,  204;  at  St. 
Charles'  college,  203,  211,  212, 
212n,  245;  at  St.  Mary's  semi- 
nary, 62,  78,  194-214;  schol- 
arship, 198;  science,  encour- 
agement of,  205;  and  Tes- 
sier,  90;  and  Timon,  204;  and 
Whelan,  204 


Denaut,  bishop  of  Quebec,  at  De- 
troit, 167 

Denis,  P.  P.,  at  St.  Charles'  col- 
lege, 255,  261 

De  Smet,  missionary,  179;  and 
St.  Mary's  seminary,  204 

Desseille,  missionary,  274 

Detroit,  conflagration,  167,  168; 
Flaget,  153;  Eichard,  138,  167 

Didaxiims,  168 

Dilhet,  Sulpician,  missionary 
work,  44,  and  Pigeon  Hill,  71 

Dissez,  Francis,  military  service, 
305;  at  St.  Mary's  seminary, 
298,  306 

Dominicans,  in  Bardstown,  147, 
156 

Donahue,  Patrick  J.,  bishop  of 
Wheeling,  328 

Doran,  Father,  Sulpician,  318 

Dougherty,  Eev.  J.  J.,  and  St. 
Mary's  college,  243 

Doughoregan,  Carroll  manor,  199 

Droste-Vischering,  Clemens  Au- 
gust von,  archbishop  of  Co- 
logne, 157n 

Drury,  Col.,  and  St.  Charles'  col- 
lege, 254 

Dubois,  John,  bishop  of  New 
York,  187-193;  and  CarroU  of 
Carrollton,  188 ;  characteris- 
tics, 189;  and  Charity,  Sis- 
ters of,  191,  223,  225,  226,  227; 
death,  192,  193;  and  Deluol, 
204;  and  Eccleston,  204;  and 
Hughes,  191,  192;  and  Mare"- 
chal,  188;  and  Mount  St. 
Mary's,  129n,  132,  133,  136, 
137;  seminary,  190;  Sulpi- 
cians,  188;  and  Whitfield,  204 
Dubourg,  William  Valentine, 
bishop,  170-180;  and  Bishop 
Carroll,  44;  and  Carroll  of 
Carrollton,  199;  characteristics, 
113;  Charity,  Sisters  of,  222, 


IXDKX 


349 


223,  226;  and  Flaget,  174,  175; 
at  Georgetown,  44;  in  Havana, 
95;  and  Indians,  178;  and 
Jackson,  173;  and  Jesuits, 
179;  and  negroes,  231;  and 
Mount  St  Mary's,  129n;  at 
St  Mary's  college,  71,  94,  95, 
97,  104,  106;  at  St  Mary's 
seminary,  41 ;  and  Sedella,  173 ; 
seminary,  175;  and  Mother 
Seton,  215,  220 

Dubreul,  Sulpician,  biographical 
details,  303;  and  Magnien, 
314;  St.  Mary's,  administra- 
tion of,  302-311 

Ducatel,  Mrs.,  and  Sisters  of 
Providence,  234,  235 

Duchemin,  Marie  TheVese,  Oblate 
Sister,  234 

Duchesne,  Madame,  Beligious  of 
the  Sacred  Heart,  174 

Duclaux,  and  Emery,  9;  and 
Mount  St.  Mary's,  131;  and 
Nagot,  55 

Duffy,  Father,  Sulpician,  318 

Dugnani,  Mgr.,  and  Bishop  Car- 
roll, 4,  15 

Dujarie",  M.,  at  St.  Mary's  semi- 
nary, 307 

Dumont,  Father,  at  St.  Charles', 
261,  262;  at  St  Mary's  semi- 
nary, 318 

Dupanloup,  and  Magnien,  313 

Dyer,  Edward  R.,  Sulpician,  318, 
319,  320;  and  St  Charles',  264 


Eccleston,  Samuel,  archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  85,  86,  276-281; 
and  Baltimore  councils,  280; 
and  Catholic  press,  279;  and 
Chanche,  282;  death,  281,  282; 
and  Dubois,  204;  oratorical 
ability,  88;  and  St  Charles' 
college,  212,  212n,  245,  246, 


247;  at  St.  Mary's  college, 
121,  195,  237,  277;  at  8t 
Mary's  seminary,  80;  and  Tee- 
nier, 90 

Education,  in  Maryland,  98,  105 ; 
clerical,  Tridentine  legislation, 
24 
Egan,    bishop    of    Philadelphia, 

184 

Eichstaedt,  seminary,  26 
Elder,  George  A.  M.,  and  8t 
Joseph's  college,  156;  at  8t 
Mary's  college,  195;  at  8t 
Mary's  seminary,  81 
Emery,  James  Andrew,  4;  ar- 
rest and  imprisonment,  6; 
birthplace,  5;  and  Bishop  Car- 
roll, 14,  17,  48,  49,  50;  death, 
14;  and  Dubourg,  113;  educa- 
tion, 5;  and  Flaget,  145-146; 
and  Fournier,  32;  and  Gar- 
nier,  61;  intrepidity,  36;  and 
Montaigne,  8;  and  Nagot,  6, 
20.  55;  and  Napoleon,  11,  12, 
13,  14;  ordination,  5;  and 
Pius  VI,  10,  11;  release,  10; 
and  revolution,  5;  and  8t 
Mary's  college,  96;  and  8t 
Mary's  seminary,  16,  17,  18, 
19,  20,  21,  46;  and  Talleyrand, 
14 

Emigres,   in   England,  57 
Emmitsburg,   Md.,   Charity,  Sis- 
ters of,  223;  Dubois  at,  128; 
Mount  St  Mary's,  72,  129 
England,  clerical  education,  25; 

Imigres,  57 
England,    bishop    of   Charleston, 

185 

Etienne,  Father,  Laxarist,  229 
,  Mother,  227,  228,  229 

Faillon,  Sulpician,  212n,  212, 
298,  300,  301;  and  St. 
Charles'  chapel,  25« 


350 


INDEX 


"Faith  of  our  Fathers,"  307 
"Faith   the   Victory,"   207 
Fell's  Point,  mission,  42,  61,  70, 

71 

Fenelon,  river,  38 
F6nelon,   M.   de  Salignac,  38 
Fenwick,     Benedict,     bishop     of 
Boston,   and  Deluol,    204;    or- 
dination, 72 

,  Edward  D.,  bishop  of  Cin- 
cinnati, 184 

,  Enoch,  Jesuit,  73 

Ferneding,  M.,  priest,  271 
Ferte,  Stanislas,  at  St.  Charles' 
college,    250,    251,    254,    255, 
261;   at  St.  Mary's  seminary, 
306 

Filicchi,  Antonio,  and  Mrs.  Se- 
ton,  217,  218,  219,  220 

,    Philip,    and    Mrs.    Seton, 

217,  218 

Flaget,  Benedict  Joseph,  bishop 
of  Bardstown,  143-161;  and 
BrutS,  267,  268,  269;  and 
Bishop  Carroll,  144,  145,  147; 
and  Governor  Cass,  155;  and 
Chabrat,  285 ;  characteristics, 
144;  and  Carroll  of  Carrollton, 
199;  and  cholera  plague,  153; 
college  project,  71;  and  David, 
145,  161,  166;  death,  159; 
diary,  159-160;  and  Dubourg, 
174,  175;  and  Emery,  7,  145- 
146;  and  Gen.  Clark,  155; 
and  Gregory  XVI,  156,  157; 
in  Havana,  44;  and  Indians, 
154;  and  Col.  Johnson,  154; 
and  Gen.  Macomb,  155;  mis- 
sionary work,  42,  149;  non- 
Catholic  esteem  for,  155; 
pastoral  work,  153;  and  Prop- 
agation of  the  Faith,  157; 
Providence,  Sisters  of,  235; 
at  St.  Mary's  college,  105;  at 
St.  Mary's  seminary,  74,  124, 


148;     and     Bishop     Spalding, 

148n. 
Flammant,      Alphonse,      at     St. 

Mary's  seminary,  295,  297,  298, 

306 

Florida,   Church    in,   288 
Florissant,  Jesuit  novitiate,  179; 

Sacred  Heart  convent,  175 
Floyd,  John,  at  St.  Mary's  semi- 
nary, 19,  68,  70 
Foley,   John   Samuel,    bishop   of 

Detroit,   294;   and  St.  Mary's 

college,   242 

Foley,  Thomas,  bishop  of  Chi- 
cago, 207;  and  Deluol,  213; 

and  St.  Mary's  college,  242 
Fonteneau,  at  St.   Charles',   261 
Fordham,     college,     New     York, 

191 
Foster,    F.    G\,    at    St.    Mary's 

college,  116 
Fournier,  Mrs.,  and  Mrs.  Seton, 

221 
Foville,    M.    de,    Sulpician,   317, 

319 

Frambach,  priest,  retirement,  128 
France,  seminaries,  27,  46 
Frederick,  Md.,  Dubois  at,  128 

,  George,  architect,  332n 

Fredet,  Sulpician,  at  St.  Mary's 

seminary,  78,  201,  206;  works, 

206n 
French    Eevolution,    and    Sulpi- 

cians,  4,  5,  31 
Friendly    Hall,     seminary.     See 

Pigeon  Hill 

Gable's  Fountain,  206 

Gallagher,  Father,  of  Charleston, 
182 

,  M.  S.,  at  St.  Mary's  col- 
lege, 240 

Gallet,  Sulpician,   16 

Gallicanism,  and  Sulpicians,  36 

Gallipolis,    settlement,   16 


INDEX 


351 


Gallitzin,  Demetrius  Augustine, 
40;  and  Bishop  Carroll,  41, 
45;  at  St.  Mary's  seminary, 
69 

,  Princess,  40,  69 

Gamier,  Anthony,  Sulpician, 
18,  60;  and  Carroll  of  Carroll- 
ton,  199;  death,  210;  and  Em- 
ery, 61;  at  Fell's  Point,  70; 
France,  recall  to,  60;  mission- 
ary work,  42;  and  Mount  St. 
Mary's,  131,  132;  and  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  54,  59,  60, 
89;  scholarship,  61 
Garrigan,  Philip  J.,  264 
Garvey,  William,  at  St.  Charles' 

college,  248 
Gaston,       Alexander,       at       St. 

Mary's  college,  118 
Georgetown  College,  and  Bishop 
Carroll,  17;  Badin,  68;  David, 
162;  Dubourg,  44,  94;  Fen- 
wick,  Benedict,  73;  Fenwick, 
Enoch,  73;  foundation,  3; 
Marshal,  77;  Matthews,  70; 
and  St.  Mary's  college,  95; 
and  St.  Mary's  seminary,  19, 
41,  47,  80,  91,  92;  and  Sulpi- 
cians,  45 

Georgia,  Church  in,  289 
Germans,  Catholic,  in  Baltimore, 

278,   278n 

Germany,  seminary  movement,  26 
Gethsemane,  Ky.,  Trappist  foun- 
dation, 156n 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  307,  308;  and 
Father  Jenkins,  260;  and  Mag- 
nien,  316 

Gildea,  Rev.  John,  207 
Godefroy,  Maximilian,  architect, 

329 

Goesbriand,  de,  bishop  of  Bur- 
lington, 213 

Good  Shepherd,  Sisters  of  the,  In 
Kentucky,  158 


Grand  Coteao,  Sacred  Heart  eon- 
vent,  175 

Gregory   XVI,  and   Flaget,   154, 
157 

Griffin,  Rev.   II.,  261,  261n 

Gross,    Joseph,    at    St.    Charles' 
college,  248 

,    William    H.,    archbishop, 

263 

Guilbaud,   Sulpician,   261,   307 

Guillemin,  M.,  at  8t  Mary 's  col- 
lege, 105 

Quitter,  Sulpician,  298 

Hall,  James,  geologist,  and  De- 
luol,  205 

Hamon,  Sulpician,  318 

Harent,  Joseph,  Sulpician,  71, 
125 

Harper,  Mrs.,  and  8t  Charlea' 
college,  254 

,  Robert,  general,  and  Sis- 
ters of  Charity,  226 

Harrig,  Sulpician,  318 

Haug,  Sulpician,  318 

Havana,  Sulpicians,  44,  93 

Henry,  Patrick,  and  Dubois,  128 

Hickey,  J.  J.,  Sulpician,  83,  198, 
209,  227,  228;  and  Mount  St. 
Mary's,  132,  134;  and  St. 
Charles'  college,  254;  at  St. 
Mary's  college,  195,  239;  and 
seal  of  confession,  210 

Hierarchy,  American,   182-1M 

Higginbotham,  Rev.  Ralph,  and 
Maryland  University,  100 

HiUefberger,  Charles,  and  St. 
Mary's  college,  242 

Hobart.  Rev.  Mr.,  and  Mrs.  80- 
ton,  217,  219 

Hogue,  Sulpician,  318 

Holy    Cross    College,    Wore«*t*r, 

founded,  73 

Trinity  parish,  Philadel- 
phia, 73 


352 


INDEX 


Hoskins,  John,  at  St.  Mary's 
college,  195,  208 

Hotel-Dieu,  Montreal,  215 

Howard,  Col.,  and  St.  Mary's 
college,  121 

,  Thomas,  and  Bardstown 

seminary,  162 

Hughes,  John,  archbishop  of 
New  York,  and  Charity,  Sis- 
ters of,  228;  and  Deluol,  213; 
draft  riots,  306;  and  Dubois, 
191,  192;  and  Mount  St. 
Mary's,  134;  seminary,  288 

Icard,  Sulpician,  66 

Ignatius   of  Loyola,   Saint,   and 

clerical  training,  26 
Illinois,  Church  in,  147 
"Images,     Vindication     of     the 

Catholic  Doctrine  concerning," 

by  David,  165 
Immigration,    Catholic,    2,    203, 

211 
Independence,    War    of,    French 

assistance,  4 
Indiana,  Church  in,  147 
Indians,    and    BrutS,    273;    and 

Dubourg,     178;     Flaget,     149, 

154;     Sulpician    missions,    38, 

42 
Irving,  Washington,  and  Deluol, 

205 

Issy,  Sulpician  seminary,  61,  166 
Iturbide,  Angelo,  at  St.  Mary's 

college,  119 

Jackson,    Andrew,    and    Dubois, 

128;   and  Dubourg,  173 
Jansenism,  and  Sulpicians,  36 
Jenkins,  Oliver  L.,  biographical 
details,     249;     literary     work, 
250,    251;    and    St.    Charles', 
212,  246,  247,  248,  250,  260; 
and  St.  Mary's  college,  238 


Jesuits,  in  Baltimore,  244,  295, 
296;  in  Bardstown,  156;  col- 
lege curriculum,  258;  and  Du- 
bourg, 179;  and  episcopate, 
183;  in  Maine,  39;  in  Mon- 
treal, 38;  in  New  York,  73;  in 
Pennsylvania,  80;  in  United 
States,  183 

Joerger,  M.  J.,  doctorate,  309 
Johnson,  Col.,  and  Flaget,  154 
Johnston,  Christopher,  243 
Joubert    de   la   Muraille,   James 
Hector  Nicholas,  73;  biograph- 
ical details,  232;  and  negroes, 
231,  232,  233;   at  St.  Mary's 
college,  195 

de  Maine,  C.,  232 

Juign6,  Mgr  de,  archbishop  of 
Paris,  5;  exile,  11 

Kain,    John    Joseph,    archbishop 

of  St.  Louis,  263,  308 
' '  Katholische  Wahrheitsf reund, ' ' 

240 
Kavanagh,      Edward,      at      St. 

Mary's  college,  119 
Keane,    John   J.,   archbishop   of 

Dubuque,    263,    308;    and   St. 

Mary's  seminary,  310,  311 
Kelly,  Eev.  D.  S.,  at  St.  Charles' 

college,  297 
,    Patrick,    bishop    of    Eich- 

mond,  184 
,  William  T.,  at  St.  Mary's 

college,  116,  296 

Kennedy,  J.  P.,  and  Deluol,  205 
,  William,  and  St.  Charles' 

college,  254 

Kenrick,  Francis  Patrick,  arch- 
bishop of  Baltimore,  death, 

306;  and  Deluol,  213;  nativist 

riots,    204;     and    St.    Mary's 

seminary,  301 

Kent  Bay,  Sulpician  mission,  38 
,  County  School,  99 


INDEX 


Kentucky,  Flaget,  147;  ordina- 
tion, first,  285 

Knight,  Edward,  Sulpician,  116, 
195,  208,  296 

Knott,  A.  Leo,  243 

Knownothings,  in  Baltimore,  294, 
295 

Kohlmann,  Anthony,  8.  J.,  72; 
Providence,  Sisters  of,  236 

Kraft,  G.  J.,  at  St  Charles'  col- 
lege, 297 

Kunkel,  Sulpician,  318 

Lacroix,  de,  Lazarist,  175,  178 

Lafarge,  John,  and  Dubois,  190 

Lafargeville,  New  York,  semi- 
nary, 190,  191 

La  Fayette,  and  Dubois,  128 

Lalumiere,  priest,  271 

Lange,  Elizabeth,  Oblate  Sister, 
234 

Larkin,  John,  priest,  82 

La  Salle,  Jean  Cavelier  de,  and 
Sulpicians,  39 

,   Ren6   Robert  Cavelier  de, 

and  Sulpicians,  39 

Latrobe,  Benjamin  H.,  at  St 
Mary's  college,  120 

Lawsuits,  Sulpician  attitude, 
33 

Lazarists,  in  Baltimore,  278; 
and  Charity,  Sisters  of,  211, 
229;  St  Louis  seminary,  175; 
seminary  direction,  27 

Lechassier,  and  Sulpician  rule, 
35 

Le  Gallic,  Sulpician,  5;  and  Em- 
ery, 9 

Le  Hir,  Sulpician,  214 
Lemcke,    Father,   GalliUin's   bi- 
ography, 70 
Lequerre,  Urban,  at  St  Mary  • 

seminary,  305,  306,  307 
Leray,   archbishop   of   New   Or- 
leans, 294 


" Letters  to  Brother  Jonathan," 

81 
Levadoux,    Sulpician,     18;     and 

Emery,  7 ;  minion,  42,  44,  137, 

167;   at  St  Mary's  seminary, 

63 

Levins,  Father,  189 
Lhomme,    Francis,    biographical 

details,  293;   death,  302;   and 

St  Mary's  college,  239;  at  8t 

Mary's  seminary,  195,  293 
Limoelan,  Chevalier.     8«e  Clori- 

viere. 

Loretto,  colony,  45,  69 
,  Sisters  of,    156;    Chabrat, 

85,  286 
Lottery,  and  8t  Mary's  college, 

104 
Loughlin,    bishop    of    Brooklyn, 

207 

Louisiana,  Church  in,  170 
Louisville,  see  erected,  158;  8ul- 

picians,   44 
Lulvorth  Castle,  Biabop  Carroll's 

consecration,  16 
Luynes,    Charles    Hippolyte    de, 

8.  J.,  and  Badin,  68 ;  at  Bard»- 

town  seminary,  85 
Lynch,    Joseph    Patrick,    buhop 

of  Dallas,  328 
-  (Patrick;  N.),  «»d  DelooU 

204 

McCallen,   Jamea   A.,   SuJpidaa, 

309,  310 
McKenny,  P.  X.,  SulpteUn,  2<t, 

318 

McLane,  Robert  Milligan,  243 
Macomb,    General,    and    Flaget, 

155 
Maetaviah,  Mr*.,  and  Sulpieiama, 

199,  200 
Maes,  J.,  »t  8t  Charle*'  college, 

254 
Magnien,  Alpbonse,  biographical 


354 


INDEX 


details,  313,  and  Catholic  Uni- 
versity, 333;  death,  337;  St 
Mary's  seminary,  312-337 

Maher,  Sulpician,  318 

,  D.  E.,  at  St  Charles'  col- 
lege, 297 

Maine,  Fenwiek's  activity,  73; 
Sulpician  missions,  39 

Maisonneuve,  and  Montreal,  37 

Mailer,  Father,  Lazarist,  229 

Marechal,  Ambrose,  archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  180-187;  and 
Carroll  of  Carrollton,  199; 
and  Charity,  Sisters  of,  227; 
death,  187;  and  Dubois,  188; 
and  Emery,  8;  learning,  181; 
and  Mount  St.  Mary's,  131, 
132 ;  and  Neale,  182 ;  and  New 
York  diocese,  181;  and  Phila- 
delphia, 181;  and  St.  Mary's 
seminary,  41,  63,  77,  88,  186 

Marietta,  settlement,   16 

Marnesia,  Marquis  de,  colony,  16 

"Marye's  Plot,"  200 

Maryland,  Catholic  population 
(1785),  1;  county  schools,  106; 
education  in,  98;  missions,  2, 
42,  74,  161 

,  University  of,   100,   101 

Matignon,  Eev.  Dr.,  and  Mrs. 
Seton,  220 

Matthews,  William,  at  St.  Mary 's 
seminary,  41,  70 

Maury,  Cardinal,  and  Gamier, 
61 

McCaffrey,  John  H.,  208 

McCloskey,  Cardinal,  at  Mount 
St.  Mary's,  134 

McDowell,  Dr.  John,  and  Mary- 
land University,  100 

McGill,  bishop  of  Richmond,  207 

MeNeirny,  bishop  of  Albany, 
and  Deluol,  213 

MeSherry,  James,  and  Mount 
St  Mary's,  135 


Menlo  Park,  California,  semi- 
nary, 261,  320 

Meredith,  William,  and  St 
Charles'  college,  254 

"Metropolitan,  The,"  279 

Metropolitan  Press,  Baltimore, 
279 

Michigan,  Church  in,  147;  print- 
ing, early,  169 

,  University  of,  and  Richard, 

168 

"Michigan  Essay,"  169 

Micmacs,  Sulpician  missions,  39 

Milan,  diocesan  seminary,  25, 
26 

Mission,  Priests  of  the.  See 
Lazarists 

Mississippi  (river),  discovery, 
and  Sulpicians,  39 

Monaghan,  John  J.,  bishop  of 
Wilmington,  263,  327,  328 

Monocacy,  Gen.  Wallace's  re- 
treat from,  305 

Monroe,  James,  and  Dubois,  128 

Montaigne,  Sulpician,  8,   10 

Montauban,  Dubois '  episcopate, 
180 

Montdesir,  Jean  de,  at  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  19,  41,  68,  70 

Monteith,  Rev.  John,  168 

Montevis,  M.,  and  Emery,  9 

Montgomery,  George  T.,  bishop, 
263,  327 

Montreal,  foundation,  37;  mis- 
sions, early,  38 

Moranville',  Sulpician,  and  ne- 
groes, 234 

Mountain,  The.  See  Mount  St 
Mary's  College 

Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Em- 
mitsburg,  72,  126;  BrutS,  268, 
269;  Charity,  Sisters  of,  225; 
faculty,  130;  foundation,  129; 
and  Pigeon  Hill,  59;  Protes- 
tant students,  131;  rebuilt, 


HTDKX 


136;  student  teachers,  81;  and 
Tessier,  89 

Moynahan,  at  Mount  St  Mary 's, 
130,  130n 

Muldoon,  Peter  James,  bishop  of 
Eockford,  328 

Murphy,  Maria,  Sister  of  Char- 
ity, 222 

Myers,  H.  J.,  at  8t  Mary 's  col- 
lege, 240 

Nagot,  Francis  Charles,  18; 
academy  project,  49;  and 
Bishop  Carroll,  17,  54,  57; 
characteristics,  54,  57;  Char- 
ity, Sisters  of,  223;  death,  75; 
and  Emery,  6,  20,  55;  literary 
works,  59;  and  Mount  St 
Mary's,  129n;  Olier,  life  of, 
55;  and  Pigeon  Hill,  59,  72, 
125,  126;  resignation,  59; 
and  St  Mary's  seminary,  22, 
39,  40,  53-75;  and  Tessier, 
58 

Napoleon,  and  Emery,  11,  12,  13, 
14;    and    Pius    VII,    12,    13; 
and  Sulpicians,  12,  181 
Nashville,  see  erected,  286 
Natchez,  Chanche,  episcopate  of, 

283,  284 

Natchitoches,  and  Dubourg,  177 
Nativist   riots,    in   Philadelphia, 

204 
Nazareth,  Sister*  of  Charity  of, 

156,  163 
Neale,  archbishop,  and  Marechal, 

78,  182;  and  Tessier,  87 
Negroes,  Sulpician  care  of,  63, 

74,  231,  232,  233 
Nerinckx,     Father,     foundation, 

156 

Neumann,    bishop    of    Philadel- 
phia, and  Deluol,  213 
New  Jersey,  Dubois'   visitation, 
189 


New  Orleans,  dioce**,  170,  171, 
172 

New  York  (diocese),  Charily, 
Sisters  of,  191,  225,  226,  22* ; 
draft  riot*,  809;  Dubois' 
episcopate,  188193;  Bishop 
Hughes,  192;  Kohlmann's  ad- 
ministration, 72;  and  Mount 
St  Mary's,  135;  seminary,  306 

New  York  (state),  Catholic  pop- 
ulation (1785),  1 

New  York  Literary  Institution, 
72 

Nicollet,  scientist,  and  Deluol, 
205;  and  VArot,  207 

Norfolk,  disturbance*,   182 

Nyack,  seminary,  190 

Oath,  constitutional,  and  Sulpi- 
cians, 31 

Oblates  of  St  Charles,  and  sem- 
inary direction,  216 

O'Brien,  Bev.  Matthew,  aad 
Mother  Seton,  219 

O'Connell,  Denis  J.,  bishop  of 
Richmond,  308 

O'Conway,  Cecilia,  Sister  of 
Charity,  221,  223 

O  'Donovan,  Charles,  243 

Oertel,  Maximilian.  at  St 
Mary's  college,  240 

Ogdensburg,  New  York,  Sulpi- 
cian*, 38 

Olier,  Jean  Jaeque*,  27;  aad 
Bretonvilliera,  35;  and  Char- 
ity, Sisters  of,  215;  and  Em- 
ery>  9;  missionary  **pui  !•»••% 
28;  and  Montreal,  37;  Nafot'* 
life  of,  55,  »»;  parochial 
work,  28,  34;  aad  TroMM, 
35;  and  St  Vlaeent  de  Paul. 

28 
"One  Mile  Taver*/'  Balti-ot*, 

22 


356 


INDEX 


Oratory,     French,     and     clerical 

training,  27 
O'Reilly,     Patrick,     bishop     of 

Springfield,  263,  294 
Osages,  and  Dubourg,  178 
O 'Sullivan,  Jeremiah,  bishop  of 

Mobile,  263,  308 

Pace,  Edward  A.,  264 

Palin  d'Abonville,  Sulpician,  318 

Paquiet,  Sulpician,  105n,  110, 
114,  115 

Paris,  diocesan  seminary,  27; 
revolutionary  period,  5 

Parliament  of  Paris,  and  Sulpi- 
cians,  35 

Peabody,  George,  Wallis'  biog- 
raphy of,  121 

Pecei,  Joseph,  Catholic  doctrine, 
exposition  of,  218,  218n 

Penalver  y  Cardenas,  bishop  of 
New  Orleans,  171,  172 

Pennsylvania,  Catholic  popula- 
tion (1785),  1;  Jesuit  mis- 
sions, 80;  missionaries,  2 

Perrineau,  at  St.  Mary's  semi- 
nary, 19,  68,  70 

Phelan,  Eichard,  bishop  of  Pitts- 
burg,  294 

Philadelphia,  Charity,  Sisters  of, 
225;  Mare"chal,  181;  nativist 
riots,  204 

Pigeon  Hill,  seminary,  71,  112, 
125,  126 

Piot,  B.  S.,  and  St.  Charles'  col- 
lege, 202,.  245 

Pise,  Charles  Constantino,  at  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  81 

Pitaval,  J.  B.,  archbishop,  328 

Pius  IV,  and  seminary  move- 
ment, 25 

VI,  and  American  semi- 
nary, 3;  and  Church  in  United 
States,  1;  and  Emery,  10,  11 

VII,  and  Dubois,   190;   and 


Napoleon,     12,     13;     and    St. 

Mary's  seminary,  51,  186 
Pizarro,  Mr.,  at  St.  Mary's  col- 
lege, 239,  240 
Pokegan,     Indian     village,     273,. 

274 

Pole,  Cardinal,  seminary,  25 
Portland,  archdiocese,  281 
Pottowatamie     Indians,     Badin, 

68,  275 

Pouget,  H.  C.,  at  St.  Charles,  297 
Prairie     du    Uocher,     Richard's 

mission,  167 
Priests,    secular,    and    seminary 

direction,  26 
"Principles   of   Catholics,"   Ba- 

din,  68 

Propagation    of    the   Faith,    So- 
ciety for  the,  and  Flaget,  157 
Property,    ecclesiastical,    Eceles- 

ton's    regulations,    86;    Mare- 

chal,  186 
Providence,    Oblate    Sisters    of, 

74,  230-236,  330 
Purcell,  John  B.,  archbishop  of 

Cincinnati,    and    Deluol,    204; 

and  Mount  St.  Mary's,  135 

Quarter,  William,  bishop  of  Chi- 
cago, and  Mount  St.  Mary's, 
135 

Queylus  de  Montmorency,  der 
Sulpician,  38 

Eandanne,  J.  B.,  and  Mount  St. 

Mary's,     132,     134;     and    St. 

Charles'  college,  254,  261;   at 

St.   Mary's  college,   116,   195, 

239 
Eaymond,    Sulpician,    238,    245, 

248,  250,  251,  296,  299 
"Eecueil   de   conversions  remar- 

quables,"  by  Nagot,  59n 
Eeilly,    C.,    doctorate 
"Religious   Cabinet,"   208 


INDEX 


357 


Keligious  Orders,  and  seminary 
direction,  26 

Betreats,  first  in  America,  74 

Bex,  C.  B.,  Sulpician,  262,  263, 
318 

Reynolds,  Ignatius  A.,  at  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  81;  educa- 
tional work,  85;  and  cholera 
plague,  153 

Bichard,  Gabriel,  166-170;  Con- 
gress, delegation  to,  169;  in 
Detroit,  42,  44,  137,  138;  edu- 
cational foundations,  167;  and 
Emery,  7;  and  Flaget,  153; 
patriotism,  169 ;  publishing 
ventures,  169;  at  St  Mary's 
seminary,  41 

Rinc6,  Sulpician,  at  St.  Charles' 
college,  261;  at  St.  Mary's 
seminary,  307 

Rochefoucauld  Liancourt,  Due  de, 
on  education  in  Maryland,  100, 
101 

Roloff,  M.  R,  priest,  73 

Roman,  Andrew  Bienvenue,  at 
St.  Mary's  college,  119 

Rosati,  Lazarist,  174;  coadjutor- 
ship,     179;     and     Providence, 
Sisters  of,  235 
Buff,  priest,  271 
Bussell,  William  T.,  264 

Sacred  Heart,  Religious  of  the, 
and  Dubourg,  174,  175 

St  Alphonsus'  church,  Balti- 
more, 278 

St.  Anne,  parish,  Detroit,  138, 
167,  169 

St  Augustine,  diocese,  Ve>ot's 
episcopate,  289 

St.  Charles'  college,  Baltimore, 
245-264 ;  benefactions,  253, 
254;  building  alterations,  255; 
Carroll's  donation,  200;  chap- 
el, 256,  257;  chartered,  200; 


and  Civil  War,  257,  305;  con- 
flagration, 264 ;  corner  ••tone, 
201 ;  curriculum,  257,  258,  259, 
260;  and  Deluol,  211,  212, 
212n;  Kccleston,  245,  246; 
episcopate,  alumni  in,  263 ;  fat- 
uity, 260;  and  Faillon,  300; 
Jenkins,  246,  247;  ordinations, 
262;  Piot  donation,  202;  and 
Propaganda,  201 ;  student 
body,  251,  252,  255,  256;  stu- 
dent teachers,  203;  tuitions, 
253;  trustees,  200,  201,  247, 
248,  248n;  Williamson  gift, 
201 
8t  Charles,  Mo.,  Sacred  Heart 

convent,  175 
St.  Cyr,  priest,  271 
St.  Francis  Xavier  's  college,  New 

York,  first  president,  83 
St    John's    church,    Baltimore, 

278n 
St  John's  college,  Maryland,  99, 

100,   101,   103 

St  Joseph,  Sisters  of.    See  Char- 
ity, Sisters  of 
St  Joseph's  college,  Bardstown, 

156 

St  Joseph's  Valley,  223 
St   Louis,   cathedral,    175;    Du- 
bourg, 174,  175;  Richard,  16«; 
seminary,  175 

St  Mary's  college,  Baltimore, 
71,  91-123,  237-244;  aeademks 
standing,  122;  alumni,  distin- 
guished, 118-121,  242,  243; 
Brut*,  268;  building*.  113; 
building  alterations,  300;  and 
M.  Carrier*,  196;  and  Bishop 
Carroll,  96,  97 ;  chart*r*d.  104 ; 
abuses,  duration  of,  108;  clas- 
sical languages,  107n;  eternal 
vocations,  125;  comm«x*m<^>t 
(1813),  110;  commenwnwnt 
(1816),  109;  creed  distine- 


358 


INDEX 


tions,  102,  104;  curriculum, 
107,  107n,  108;  daily  regula- 
tion, 111;  discipline,  111,  113, 
122;  Eecleston,  277;  Emery, 
96;  faculty,  105,  106,  115;  and 
Georgetown,  95;  and  Pigeon 
Hill,  112;  public  examination, 
110;  records,  105;  and  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  81;  students, 
241,  242;  and  Sulpicians,  196, 
211;  suppression,  244,  296, 
296n;  and  Tessier,  89;  univer- 
sity rank,  106;  West  Indian 
students,  96 

St.  Mary's  college,  Bardstown, 
156 

St.  Mary's  seminary,  alumni,  71, 
81,  207-209;  Badin,  68;  Brute, 
268;  buildings,  330,  331;  Car- 
riere's  visitation,  89;  cente- 
nary, 334,  335;  chapel,  329,  330, 
330n;  and  Civil  War,  303,  304, 
305;  and  council  of  1884,  333; 
Cuban  contingent,  44;  curricu- 
lum, 206,  298,  319-326;  David, 
74,  162 ;  degrees,  conferring  of, 
308,  309;  Deluol's  administra- 
tion, 194-214;  Dubreul,  302- 
311;  episcopate,  alumni  in,  294, 
308,  327,  328;  faculty  (1798), 
54;  foundation,  18;  Gallitzin, 
69;  Gamier,  59,  62;  and 
Georgetown,  19,  47,  80,  92; 
incorporation,  301 ;  Levadoux, 
63;  Lhomme's  administration, 
292-302 ;  Magnien  's  adminis- 
tration, 312-337;  Marechal  at, 
63;  memorial  volume,  117; 
and  Mount  St.  Mary 's,  131 ; 
Nagot'a  administration,  53-75; 
observatory,  207 ;  ordination, 
first  native  American,  41;  or- 
dinations, 79;  paintings,  332; 
and  Pius  VII,  51;  projected, 
15 ;  and  St.  Mary 's  college,  95 ; 


scientific  course,  206,  207;  site, 
22,  328,  329;  student  body,  19, 
44,  45,  50,  93,  307,  326,  327; 
Tessier,  58,  62,  76;  theological 
course,  207;  university  rank, 
88;  Williamson  gift,  209 

St.  Matthew's  church,  Washing- 
ton, 208 

St.  Patrick's  parish,  Baltimore, 
42,  61 

St.  Peter's  church,  Washington, 
87 

St.  Rose's  monastery,  Bardstown, 
147,  160,  285 

St.  Sulpice,  parish,  Paris,  28,  34 

St.  Thomas'  seminary,  Bards- 
town, 162,  285 

St.  Vincent  de  Paul's  seminary, 
Lafargeville,  N.  Y.,  191 

Sakia,  Maryland,  Sulpician  mis- 
sion, 42 

San  Domingo,  uprising,  63,  74, 
230 

Sault  St.  Marie,  Sulpicians,  44 

Savannah,  V6rot  's  episcopate, 
289 

Schrantz,  C.  B.,  Sulpieian,  262 

Scioto,  French  colony,  16 

Seal  of  confession,  and  Fr. 
Hickey,  210 

Sedella,  Anthony,  priest,  173,  176, 
177 

Seminaries,  St.  Charles  Borromeo, 
25;  England,  25;  episcopal 
control,  32;  France,  27;  Ger- 
many, 26;  Italy,  25;  Cardinal 
Pole,  25;  Spain,  26;  Sulpician 
system,  14,  65;  term  first  used, 
25;  Tridentine  legislation,  24, 
26 

Senate,  United  States,  Catholic 
chaplain,  82 

Seton,  Anna,  217 

,  Elizabeth,  and  Babad,  221 ; 

biographical  details,  216;  and 


INDEX 


359 


Brute",    226;    conversion,    219; 

and  8.  Cooper,  222;  and  Da- 

bois,  127;   and  Dubourg,  220; 

and    Filicchis,    217-220;    vows, 

222;  FT.  White's  life  of,  208 
,    William,    and    Mount   8t 

Mary's,  135,  217 
Bewail,    Rev.    Charles,    and   8ul- 

picians,  22 
Sibourd,     Father,     vicar-general 

of  New  Orleans,  173,  176,  177; 

and    Fr.    Dubourg,    215;    and 

Mrs.  Seton,  220 
Smith,   Samuel,   death,    296;    at 

Mount  St.  Mary's,  130,  130n; 

at  St  Mary's  college,  240 
,  William,  and   Washington 

college,  99 

Spalding,  M.  J.,  bishop  of  Louis- 
ville, and  Flaget,  148n 
Starrs,   Father,   vicar-general   of 

New  York,  209 
Stenson,  Mrs.,  204 
Stewart,    George,    general,    and 

Deluol,  205 

"Student's  Handbook  of  Brit- 
ish and  American  Literature" 
(Jenkins),  251 

Talleyrand,  and  Emery,   14 
Taney,  Chief  Justice,  Wallis'  ora- 
tion, 121 

Tanquerey,  A.  A.,  Sulpician,  320 
Taylor,   Eev.    Mr.,   and    Dubois, 

188 

Tennessee,  Church  in,  147 
Tessier,  John  Mary,  Sulpician, 
18;  and  Baltimore  diocese,  86, 
87;  and  Bishop  Carroll,  76; 
and  Charity,  Sisters  of,  225; 
death,  90;  and  Mount  St. 
Mary's,  132;  missionary  work, 
42,  63,  74;  and  Nagot,  58; 
and  negroes,  231;  Providence, 
Sisters  of,  236;  resignation, 


195;  at  St  Mary's  eollef*, 
105;  at  St.  Mary's  semiaarT, 
54,  62,  76 

Tiernan,  Lake,  and  8t  Mary'! 
college,  118,  119 

Timon,  bishop  of  Buffalo,  and 
Charity,  Sisters  of,  229;  and 
Deluol,  204,  213 

Tisserant,  Father,  and  Mrs.  Se- 
ton, 220 

Trappists,  in  Kentucky,  156n 

Trent,  Council  of,  seminary  leg- 
islation, 24,  26 

Tronson,  and  de  La  Salle,  39; 
and  Olier,  35 

Trouve,  Sulpician,  38 

"True  Christian,  The,"  by 
Bishop  McGill,  207 

Trusteeism,  Marshal's  stand, 
186 

"Truth  Teller,"  191 

Tulloh,  M.,  at  St  Mary 'a,  19 

United  States,  Catholic  popula- 
tion (1785),  1;  Church,  growth 
of,  281;  Church,  organization 
of,  1;  clergy  (1785),  2;  col- 
lege, first  Catholic,  3;  educa- 
tional problems,  early,  92; 
French  colonization,  16;  immi- 
gration, early  Catholic,  2;  Jea- 
tiit»,  183;  ordination,  first,  68; 
religious  tolerance,  141;  semi- 
nary, first,  15 

"United  States  Catholic  Maga- 
zine," 208 

Ursulines,  and  Dubourg,  174 

Val  d 'Espremenil,  M.,  colony,  1« 
Verot  Augustine,  bishop  of  St. 
Augustine,  287;  at  St  Mary'i 
college,  110,  239,  240;   at  8t 
Mary's  seminary,  201,  Z0«;  «e4- 
cntiflc  attainment*,  207 
Verot 's  Island,  287 


360 


INDEX 


Ville-Marie.     See  Montreal 
Villeneuve,  Sulpician,  288 
Vimont,  Father,  missionary,  38 
Vincennes,     Brut6  's     episcopate, 
269-276;    statistics,    272;    Sul- 
picians,   44 

Vincent  de  Paul,  St.,  and  Sisters 
of   Charity,  215;   and  clerical 
training,    27;    missionary    ex- 
periences, 28;  and  Olier,  28 
Vincentian     Congregation.      See 

Lazarists 

Visitation  Order,  Georgetown, 
chapel  blessed,  87;  and  FT. 
Wheeler,  82 

Vuibert,  A.,  at  St.  Charles'  col- 
lege, 261  > 

Wadhams,  Edgar  P.,  bishop  of 
Ogdensburg,  207,  294 

Wakeham,  R.  K.,  Sulpieian,  318 

Wallis,  Severn  Teakle,  121,  122; 
and  Pizarro,  240;  and  Verot, 
240 

Walmesley,  Bishop,  and  Bishop 
Carroll,  16 

Walter,  J.  A.,  and  St.  Mary's 
college,  242 

Washington  College,  99;  com- 
mencement program  (1783), 
103,  104;  de  la  Rochefoucauld 
on,  100;  lottery,  105n 

Webster,  and  Deluol,  205 

Wheeler,  Michael  F.,  priest,  82; 


Providence,  Sisters  of,  236;  at 
St.  Mary's  college,  116,  195 

Whelan,  Richard  V.,  bishop,  and 
Deluol,  204;  and  Mount  St 
Mary's,  135 

White,  Rev.  Charles  I.,  207,  208 

,  Rose,  Sister  of  Charity, 

226,  227 

Whitemarsh,  Maryland,  Jesuits 
at,  179 

Whitfield,  Archbishop,  and  Car- 
riere,  194;  doctorate,  88;  and 
Dubois,  204;  and  Eceleston, 
277,  278;  funeral  oration,  78; 
Providence,  Sisters  of,  235; 
and  Tessier,  87 

Wilberf  orce,  Robert,  and  Deluol, 
214 

Williamson,  Adolphus,  and  St. 
Charles'  college,  201;  and  St. 
Mary's  seminary,  209 

Wilson,  Father,  Dominican,   285 

Winchester,  Md.,  mission,  77 

Worcester,  Mass.,  Holy  Cross  col- 
lege, 73 

Wurzburg,  seminary,  26 

Xaupi,  Snlpician,  83 

Torktown,  centenary  celebration, 

333 
Young  Catholic  Friends'  Society, 

294 


000  749  493     3 


